Obliviate
by Solisdea
Summary: Hogwarts had been called home to many, and this time in Harry's 6th year, the castle opened it's doors to Eaglecrest, a wizarding school located in the United States. Harry's entire world is turned upside-down when he is introduced to an American pureblood witch, the one that he is finally able to call his "always." Alternate 6th year plot with use of OC.
1. Chapter 1

Hogwarts walls were always curiously buzzing with hubbub and nonsensical rumors or twisted tales of the Daily Prophet, and today wasn't really much different, except that the tumult was true. The famous Harry Potter was now entering the first week of his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which meant 6 long years of trying to filter out rubbish. A tall and gangly red haired boy pummeled through a thick wooden door revealing a resting Harry Potter, fingering through a tattered book with dense binding named Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Can you really be studying at a time like this?"

"What's that supposed to mean, Ron?" Harry asked, not skipping a beat in his readings.

"Haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"The news you blundering idiot!"

"What news? News that Dean was snogging your sister yesterday morning?" Harry mumbled.

"What… "

"Nothing Ron, just forget it, what's the news?"

"Dumbledore is having a speech today, and everyone saw eagles landing right in the Quidditch field. "

"For one, today is normal for Dumbledore to have a speech… it's the day before our classes begin. Second, who is _everyone_…"

"Well, Seamus…. Luna…." Ron bit his lip.

"Oh get off it. There's a feast going on tonight, that'll be at least enough to get you out of bed I hope."

"Well, when?" Harry asked.

"You've been straight up livin' blind today haven't you. Not one Gryffindor is in the common room…."

"Let's be off then. I can use a break. This head start on my N.E.W.T's isn't going as lovely as I had planned."

Harry shoved the book under his bed and a small gray cloud of dust billowed underneath it. Hedwig softly hooted at Harry and Ron scurried through the open passageway. The halls were completely baron, not one voice could be heard on the boy's walk to the Great Hall. From quite a distance the noise became apparent rather quickly and a large rush of excitement poured from the slightly askew Hall doors. All four overly long tables had been in the same position, Hermione's hands were waving frantically in the air at the farther end of the Gryffindor table. The house banners were not hanging over each table, but a black flag with an enormous eagle planted in the center flew proudly above the students. After Ron and Harry sat with Hermione, they noticed one more table; it sat horizontally with theirs filled with all unfamiliar faces beaming in the luminescence.

"I can't believe Dumbledore actually did it." Hermione grinned.

A man shy of six feet with a stout black cape glided across the front of the usual Hogwarts tables. An air such the Dumbledore radiated was spread amongst the students, but this man was easily 20 years younger than the Hogwarts headmaster. Dumbledore rose at the usually centrally located podium, and instantly the Great Hall went mute.

"Students! I am clearly aware of the talk that has been spread faster than wildfire of our new guests sharing our same Great Hall. To help douse the fire you wonderful pupils have fueled out of control, I will mutter from my own mouth the identity of the fine gentleman standing in front of you. This is headmaster Fink, of Eaglecrest of Boulder, Colorado located in the United States of America."

A collective gasp could be heard ringing around the silent air, Hermione especially was beaming with joy.

"He's heard to be the best potion master in the entire world. " She whispered across the table. It seemed if Ron and Harry could nearly see tiny hearts leaving Hermione's head as she stared off in admiration.

"Hogwarts Students." The man announced, joining Dumbledore at center stage.

"It is my humble honor to announce that my students and I will be borrowing your brilliant time and joining you in your fight here against those who have committed unspeakable crimes against the wizarding community. We believe with the collaboration of these two noble institutes that our students will have no chance of becoming victims of… _you know who._"

It was more than obvious to Harry that it seemed like Fink was staring straight at him. Harry's face became hot with an emotion between embarrassment and anger.

"Funny accent that fellow has, yeah?" Ron said before a muffled "oomph" as Hermione kicked him under the table.

"Thank you headmaster Fink, Hogwarts is home to any witch or wizard, we hope our hospitality is at its most uprightness. We will now carry on with our sorting ceremony of new students and Eaglecrest students. The Sorting Hat will decide with house will be your temporary placement during your year stay at our home."

The trio nearly dozed off at the trailing end of the sorting ceremony where the brand new first years were placing the same old dusty hat on their head. Not soon after large silver trays piled with food the Hogwarts students had never seen before. The smell was strong and hearty; Ron's mouth began to water as the round aromatic pizza waited to be devoured. Both hands gripped golden crust of the pepperoni pizza and Ron shamelessly stuffed the triangles into his mouth.

"I read about this in my Muggle Culture book. It's called pizza and muggles have it delivered regularly to their houses for dinner." Hermione explained.

"My parents have it sometimes in London." She smiled.

"Dad tried making it once. Turn out a bit rubbery. Dad isn't much of a cook." Ron blurted out with both cheeks full of pizza.

The three ate until their bellies were so full that the buttons of their pants were near the point of bursting off. The Great Hall had nearly been emptied before Harry, Ron and Hermione had gathered their things to regroup with the others back at the common room. When the trio finally made it to the common room, it was so full they could barely squeeze through front entrance. A large circle of Gryffindors made a thick border around at least 10 brand new faces that Harry hadn't recognized.

"Bloody hell, this place is at least double what it used to. Brand new furniture it seems like too." Ron pointed out.

"I am sure while we were all in there eating Dumbledore charmed the place to add more room." Hermione added.

Ron and Hermione loomed around getting caught up in the excitement of the new students, but Harry didn't seem all too concerned with the novelty. He slipped past the large group and headed up a newer slate set of stairs that lead up to a much longer hallway than before. With a few minutes of exploring he could see that the hallway now stretched completely around the common room connecting the boys and girls hallways. Harry was able to narrow down his own door by a few markings that looked familiar to him. The dark brown wood always had a tiny crisscross mark right above the golden knob. His only predicament was there were two doors with that same tiny notch and they happened to be right next to each other.

"Dumbledore must've just used a charm to make copies of the doors." Harry whispered to himself.

After a small debate with himself, he picked the door with the handle that looked more worn, clicked it open and plunged headfirst. He was hoping to see Neville's face staring back up at his, but instead it was far from it. It was a girl, particularly one he has never seen before.

She jumped nearly three feet, pulling her black night robe tightly into her chest.

"Excuse me!?" She screamed.

"Sorry miss, wrong room." Harry said as attempted to duck out of the room.

"Really, it's fine. Same thing happened to me earlier. Stepped into a room I thought was mine, but the beds inside were so messy I knew it couldn't be mine."

Harry blushed.

"And you are?"

"Harry…. Harry Potter."

Her busy mind now focused straight on Harry.

"Harry Potter….."

"Yes….."

"You picked the wrong girl to charm."

"Charm? I picked the wrong room. I wasn't charming anyone."

"The girls from my school all fawn over you. They all know who you are."

"I don't understand…"

"Stop being so modest. There's 49 other girls you can try that crap with. "

"I'm sorry you feel this way. But, you don't know me. They don't know me, and I am not a master charmer."

"Just get out."

"Before you throw me out, can I at least know _your_ name?"

"Bloom. Ophelia Bloom. Goodnight Mr. Potter."

After backing out and reuniting himself with the comforts of his own dorm, Ron shot a smarmy smirk from a lazy position on his bed.

"They loved me. I think I am going to move to America." Ron dreamily said.

"I didn't hit it off so well with the Red, White and Blue…."

"Really? All I had to say was 'Hello mate' and they all swarmed me." Ron chuckled.

"Well before I was tossed out, the girl next door told me how I was just a charmer, and how all the American witches fawned over me."

"Come to think of it, they were asking where you were…. Don't let her get to you. There's plenty others you can get to know."

But unheeding Ron's advice, Harry did let it get to him. In fact, he nearly obsessed over the conversation in his head. When he wasn't panicking about his NEWT's he was thinking about how Ophelia Bloom was able to hate him without speaking with him for more than 5 minutes. Ophelia was beautiful, even in a night robe; her looks were still able to completely outshine the unkempt appearance. Her long blonde hair hung down past her elbows, and her bright blue eyes shone, brighter the angrier she seemed to get during the conversation.

It was the first morning beginning classes and Harry was not completely excited of the fact that Professor Snape would be teaching his favorite class. The only good thing that came out of it was that now Harry was allowed to take Advanced Potions due to the fact that Professor Slughorn's entrance scores from the OWL's were not as high as Snape's. Harry realized that he had awoken just a tad bit earlier than he needed to be in order to get ready for class and decided to take the time to stretch his legs. It was more than exciting to him seeing so many new faces roaming the halls. Hufflepuff's dominated the halls showing all of the new American students around the castle. Harry took roughly twenty minutes to show a younger American boy to classroom 1B for Transfiguration, where he stopped for a few minutes to chat with Professor McGonagall. Not soon after she pointed out that he was going to be late for his own class, and Harry dashed down to the dungeons for his first DADA class.

With only a measly 5 minutes to spare, Harry rushed through the door, where Snape was standing with his back turned to the open threshold and Harry scurried to one of the empty chairs located in the back of the classroom.

"Scuse' me, is this chair taken?" Harry asked politely.

A rather chipper looking girl with black hair chopped off at her ears smiled back.

"Of course not. Especially not for Harry Potter."

The four other girls at the table chuckled as he pulled out the chair. Before he dug his nose into his crossed arms he noticed Ophelia three tables in front of him, shooting him the sourest glare over her shoulder.

"Excuse me Harry."

A voice said timidly, barely audible from Harry's head being buried in his robes.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind showing us your scar? We've all read about it, but you sat down so quickly that I couldn't see it."

He lifted the few strands of black hair that dangled over his glasses and revealed his infamous scar. The girl's shrieked; Harry nearly melted them in their seats. Snape slammed an overly large book on the table, causing the entire class to jump.

"Now that I have your attention, we can begin your lesson on Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts. You'll all most likely be needing it, so take notes." He said in a monotone voice.

As Snape mumbled on, the girl next to Harry continued to mumble questions under her breath, taking notes on Harry's answers, not Snape's intro lesson on Dementors. Harry battled the entire 90-minute lecture with trying to reserve himself enough to keep Snape from giving him shifty eyes, and upholding his politeness to the girls at his table. He managed to keep the women and bay and Snape's squinty-eyed glare directed at other students throughout. After Snape's final comment Harry wasted no time dashing back to the common room to avoid anymore questions about _you know who_, or his current relationship status. The number of unfamiliar faces outweighed the number of ones he knew, so he hugged the shadows against the walls and avoided everyone all together.

"Harry wait!" He heard a voice call from behind him.

The call was confusing, it was loud and surely could be mistaken as hostile. He gulped down a mouth full of air, hoping that it wasn't a group of American kids with their wands pointing to his vulnerable back. To his surprise, his turn revealed a ginormous boy holding the tiniest white cup and saucer in his palm.

"Don't run away so fast. We made some tea, would you care to join us?"

Reluctantly, Harry accepted the strange smelling tea and plopped down on an open couch near the unlit fireplace in the common room.

"Harry Potter…. we've been waiting to talk to you." The tall one stated.

"Who would've thought that idiots like us would be sorted into the same house as some of the most famous wizards of magical history." A much smaller and blonde haired boy stated.

"So, you had to talk to me about?" Harry interjected, attempting not to be brash.

"Harry, in America, you are a novelty. Your name is already being taught at Eaglecrest in our History courses. All of the witches and wizards from Hogwarts are very famous overseas. We've never had to fight for our lives against _you know who_. "

The tall one stood again, staring in amazement the gigantic portrait of Godric Gryffindor mounted over the fireplace.

"Why would Dumbledore ask for Fink's help? None of us can help."

"I think Dumbledore did what he had to. We have strength in numbers, and it is smart to have talented wizards behind our walls. "

"Speaking of… What's Eaglecrest like?" Harry asked.

"Well, it isn't located in a castle. That's for a start. It's in the mountains, in a state called Colorado. The students are split into four houses like here and there are many buildings that aren't connected throughout the woods that we have to walk to for class. Our houses are Wolfpaw, Feathersmith, Owlwise, and Crowseeth. Wolves were mostly sorted into Gryffindor, Owls in Ravenclaw, Feathers in Hufflepuff and Crows in Slytherin."

"Wolfpaw as in Artesia Wolfpaw?"

"Yeah that's her. So you do know a little American history." The tall one chuckled.

"How would I not know about her? She pretty much discovered the patronus charm."

The boys spent most of the afternoon munching on pasties and drinking the strange tea that the American's made. Harry learned their names were Matt, Bobby and Travis and they were all 6th year Eaglecrest students. The common room started to buzz with more Gryffindor students entering after their classes had ended. Many of the students all gathered and began adding candy to the crumbs left of the pumpkin pasties that the boys had devoured through their hour long conversation. Chocolate frogs jumped about the pile of cauldron cakes, acid pops and Bertie Bott's. The pumpkin juice was flowing plentifully by the time Ron and Hermione had made their way into the common room. Barely noticed, Ophelia trudged through the thick wooden door of the common room and plowed through a group of girls splitting a box of canary creams. Matt watched Harry's attention be drawn to her long legs climbing the small set of stairs toward the back of the commotion.

"Out of every single person coming through that door, she's the only one skipping the fun. What is her deal?" Harry asked.

"Ah, don't worry about her, Harry."

"Seriously, I want to know."

"Well fine, if you must. Ophelia is a Wolfpaw, pureblood witch. She's a sweet gal, but her exterior is tougher than stone. She's a lot more like you than you'd expect, Harry."

The boy gulped more pumpkin juice, and Harry followed in suit waiting for the second half of the story.

"I dunno if Hogwart's books talk about Dirk McSalistone, but he was a very famous wizard, who apparently unknown to knowledge at the time he was in the American branch of Death Eaters. Dirk wormed his was in to our Ministry of Magic and executed nearly three quarters of them. All of Ophelia's family worked for Ministry and perished along with the other 170 members who died in Operation Meteor. So after that, she was off to live with her muggle uncle off in the Rocky Mountains, no wife and only a dog in a tiny log cabin. "

"Country bumpkin who didn't believe in magic, but sent her to Eaglecrest anyway.-"

"Wait Muggle uncle?" Harry interjected, "I thought she was a pureblood?"

"Yeah, uncle fell in love with her whack job aunt, Primrose Ulbrecht, pureblood witch. Blew herself up or summin' in some potions accident right after her and good old John tied the knot. So after her mom and dad were murdered, John forbid her to speak of any magic whatsoever when she was home for the summers. After her fourth year, she just started interning at Eaglecrest and other international schools, avoiding Hogwarts like the plague. We reckon that's why she hates you, because she can relate to you. "

"Like that makes any sense." Harry blurted out.

"Women." Two boys said in sync.

"Harry, really. Don't take is personally. Ophelia has always been guarded. The only reason she's cordial with us is because she grew up with us. "

Harry nodded and continued to sip on pumpkin juice and enjoy the whimsical ambiance. Three girls Harry hadn't recognized climbed over Hermione's legs and clouded over him. Harry stood from the seat, now feeling overly uncomfortable with the crowded air he was trying to breathe.

"Here, take my seat." He offered.

The girls politely smiled and plopped down across from Hermione completely ignoring her presence.

"I'll be off then." Harry gestured toward Hermione.

"Sleep well, Harry. You have a long day tomorrow." She called off as Harry began to sift through the crowd.

"Spying on ole' Harry, yeah?" Ron startled Ophelia, bumping into her in the hallway above the Common Room.

"How long have you been standing there?" She demanded, gathering her composure defensively.

"Not very long, but enough to see you googley eyed over Harry."

"I am not googley eyed over anyone. I am just curious."

"Bout what?" Ron asked.

"I've been trying to study what makes his story so special, and what makes me such a nobody. He's so normal. He doesn't have a certain arrogance, or poise. He's just a normal kid, but girls want to love him, and boys want to be him."

"Harry doesn't live around here like some king, ya know? What's novelty in America doesn't translate so well here at Hogwarts. People blame Harry for _you know who_, he's constantly in the spotlight and being scrutinized. Your books only mention the good, but I am sure they leave out all the bad. Give him a chance."

Ron exited from the conversation and joined Harry at the top of the stairs. The two slipped like shadows through the hall, passing Ophelia as she scampered into her room, nearly closing her door in sync with the boys. Harry haphazardly tossed his shoes off and paced the small throw rug on the floor in his socks.

"Keep that up we'll be sleeping in the dungeons. What're you doing?" Ron asked.

"Thinking." Harry shot back.

"Yeah, I can see that. Are you thinking about that girl again?"

"Yes Ron, I was finally at a point where the entire school didn't hate me and it felt nice. It feels nice when people don't hate you."

"I dunno Harry. I saw the look in her eyes. She could burn you ten times over."

"You talked to her today?"

"Maybe…. But only good! I swear. Ran right into her as she was standing in the shadows, plotting your death, I presume."

"Really Ron?" Harry spat at him.

"Maybe not, but watch yourself Harry. She's an American tigress."

"Alright." He said, stopping his pace and jumping straight into his empty bed.

"Get some sleep, Harry. We've both got potions class right away tomorrow thanks to you and your little talk with McGonagall."

CHAPTER


	2. Chapter 2

Harry and Ron dashed down the halls, weaving in and out of students after realizing that they had already woken up late and class was starting in less than 10 minutes. The door was cocked open and the two slipped in the back of the class, barely being able to see Hermione's head located at the front of the classroom.

"Well, alright class, please take your books and find a spot with your cauldron at a table. Whoever is able to brew a perfect draught of living death, will win the prize of Felix Felicis. Only one student has ever been able to brew me potion worthy enough, so luck to you all."

The students dispersed and Ron and Harry came to the realization that neither of them was prepared for potions class due to the fact neither of them knew that they were going to be taking it.

"Professor… Professor Slughorn!" Harry called before the man turned away.

"Yes?... Oh Harry, my boy. What a delight it is to see you in my class."

"Professor, Ron and I… we don't have any books, or cauldrons… or really much of anything."

"No problem Harry! I've got a supply closet in the back, not all the books are in the best shape, but please…. take whatever you need." Slughorn smiled, and stepped over to his desk in the far corner.

The two boys rushed to the beaten up silver cabinet, only for it to reveal one nearly new book and one so torn and battered that you could barely read the cover. Ron hastily snatched the nicer book and left Harry on his own at the cabinet. Harry brought the book and followed in Ron's footsteps over to the table where Hermione was. Only to Harry's surprise, she wasn't alone.

"Harry, Ron, this is Lia. I asked her to join us at our table."

"Her name is Ophelia." Harry said.

"To you it is." She spat back.

"So you two know each other?" Hermione inquired.

"We've met briefly." Ophelia replied.

The four buried their heads in their books and began brewing their potions. Harry took a few minutes to peruse the book and see actually how horrible of a condition it was in. Before he got too far he saw the front cover had writing on it, _Property of the Half Blood Prince._

Harry ignored it and flipped to the page of Living Death. His own recipe had the original writing scratched out in some places, where handwritten directions were inked in. Harry watched Hermione and Ron struggle, but then watched Ophelia concentrate without skipping a beat. He watched her hands as she cut wormwood so precisely. Harry almost couldn't even concentrate on his own work as he watched her in action. After a half hour of brewing, Harry's cauldron was looking to be exactly the way it was supposed to. Slughorn made rounds, dropping petals of lilies into the pots. The two cauldrons that impressed him were that of Ophelia's and Harry's himself.

"Unfortunately, there is just one that can be chosen, and that pot could kill us all with one tiny drop. That's you Harry, my boy. Well done."

Harry gracefully accepted his prize and gathered back at the table where Hermione was trying to put herself back together. Ophelia was packing up her things and shot Harry a look he wasn't used to.

"Well done, Potter." She smirked.

As she turned, the edge of her skirt brushed Harry's skin and it nearly electrified him. Harry couldn't help but push back the thought of the cloth against his naked arm, and wanting to be able to touch it again.

* * *

The next morning Harry awoke early to answer message from Dumbledore, and urgent request of Harry's presence in his office. Harry stumbled from bed, successfully not waking Ron, and swaggered in his robes down to the common area. He wasn't sure if it was still the tired from his eyes, or if he was still dreaming but all as he descended from the stairs, he saw two rear ends straight up in the air. It was still rather dark, so he couldn't make out who it was, but Harry thought to himself that one was very nice, but it was indecent to stare, so he made his presence known. Harry cleared his throat and the two silhouettes slowly lowered to the ground leading with a long exhale.

"Harry! Good morning!" Hermione sat up, looking completely relaxed.

"Hermione… what are you doing?"

She sat on her knees and drank from a tiny teacup that was still steaming on the oak table.

"Yoga… and transcendental…-"

"Transcendental meditation." Lia said, also joining in a sip of tea.

"I saw Lia yesterday morning. I had no idea anyone else got up this early… so she began teaching me. I feel so liberated…. And tranquil." Hermione smiled into her cup.

"It's the only thing that keeps my head planted on my shoulders… taking this many courses and all. Harry, you're welcome to join us." Lia sarcastically stated.

"No I would rather watch. Wait… I mean… You're being nice to me? Why are you being nice to me?"

"I'm not. You just seem a little stressed out. You should have some tea."  
"No, I am already late. Thank you." Harry indicated.

"Suit yourself."

"Hermione, are you ready to learn downward dog?"

"Sure, we've got a little more time before Herbology."

The two girls positioned themselves in the middle of the scarlet woven carpet again, the common room still silent with students sleeping.

"Okay Hermione, stand straight and relax your mind. Now bend at the waist and place your hands on the ground, making your body into a perfect V."

Harry was already back out of eyesight in the corridor, but was content with taking a few extra minutes to see what yoga was all about.

"Am I doing it right?" Hermione mumbled.

"Almost, here let me help you."

Lia grabbed Hermione's left leg and pulled it back slightly, then adjusted her waist so she was in a better position. Harry couldn't help but imagining himself grabbing Lia's waist and helping her into a more comfortable position. With the last thought, he dashed from the common room, nearly sweating from the idea of yoga.

Dumbledore was sitting patiently, enjoying fizzing whizzbees when Harry came stumbling through the threshold.

"Ah, Harry, you got my memo, how delightful. Whizzbee?" Dumbledore offered.

Harry politely decline and awaited direction from his wise mentor, for he knew that Dumbledore wouldn't have called him into his office for just a cheery chat. Dumbledore informed Harry that the two of them would be analyzing memories to try and crack the code of what Voldemort was up to. The two watched the first memory of Merope giving Tom Riddle Sr. love potion, leading up to the conception of Tom Riddle. It seemed like hours before Dumbledore had dismissed Harry from his office. Harry didn't particularly like viewing memories, especially those associated with the Dark Lord. It almost seemed to drain him, like a battery on it's last droning bit of energy. Harry knew he couldn't afford to be exhausted; Quidditch try-outs were that evening, and as captain, he had to be in top form.

After a quick nap, Harry and Ron were gearing up and heading down to the field. Ron wasn't exactly in the spirit to try out, due to the constant word of Dean and his sister doing more than just studying in the library earlier on.

"Ron, you need to look past it. I can't just let you on the team because you're my best friend. You need to perform, okay?"

"She's my sister, Harry. My little sister, and Dean is taking advantage of her."

"That's not what I heard. Just forget about it, Ron. Your sister is old enough to make her own decisions."

"Yeah, well you're so focused on everyone else's love life you failed to catch the news of Neville asking if Lia wanted to go get butterbeer with him tomorrow on our trip to Hogsmeade."

"Neville….. what did she say?"

"Of course, Neville, that sounds lovely." Ron mimicked a woman's voice.

"She's coming with Hermione to try-outs today. You could try showing off."

"She's with Hermione again? The two of them are getting awfully close. They were doing yoga this morning."

"They've got every class together, seems natural to me. Sounds like you're just jealous…. what's yoga?"

"If you only knew, Ron."

There was already a gathering of students ready and excited to begin tryouts before Harry and Ron even arrived on the green of the field. Ginny, Katie Bell, Cormac McLaggen, Dean Thomas, Romilda Vane and many others waited impatiently in a mass. Harry blew the whistle a few times and was completely ignored while everyone continued to buzz with his or her daily gossip. Harry could see Hermione and Lia up in the stands, which caused his cheeks to become filled with bright red blood.

"Everyone! We are beginning now!" Harry yelled.

The group barely heard Harry and continued to chat and laugh. Harry became increasingly angry, especially looking up into the stands and seeing that Neville and Luna had now joined Hermione and Lia.

"Hey, shut it!" Ginny screamed.

The entire field went silent.

"Tryouts are beginning now. Just a reminder, just because you were on the team last year does not mean that you will make it this year. So best of luck to you all."

Harry stood at the far edge of the field and circled watching every student in action. Half of him was worried, praying that Ron could get his composure together, because Harry had to be fair as a captain with allowing talent onto the team. The other half was furious watching Lia and Neville speak with each other up in the stands. He wasn't angry with Neville, he was angrier with himself not gathering the courage to ask Lia out before Neville could.

* * *

"Does she ever shut up?" Lia asked, watching Lavender Brown squeal over Ron's blocked shots as keeper.

"No, she doesn't" Hermione growled.

"Hermione, you love Ron don't you?" Lia bluntly asked, now that Neville and Luna scooped up closer seats to review the action.

"No, absolutely not. You're crazy." She muttered.

"Whatever you say, but if you wait too long to figure it out, someone is going to snatch him first. "

Hermione said no more. Lia was right; Ron made Hermione's heart skip beats every time she watched him move out in the air. The feelings started emerging in their fourth year and now in their sixth year it nearly drove her mad.

"I should be trying out for the Quiddich team. I was seeker back at Eaglecrest since my third year." Lia stated.

"You think Harry would mind if I took a ride on his broomstick?" Lia chuckled and jumped down from the stands.

Nobody else practicing on the field stopped or even really noticed that Lia had walked right up to Harry. Harry nearly jumped three feet when she tapped his shoulder, but then quickly melted when he saw her blue eyes less than a foot away from him.

"You think I could give it a go?" Lia asked.

"You didn't sign up for tryouts, I've already basically chosen the spots."

"I didn't say I wanted to tryout. I said that I wanted to fly."

"You played Quidditch?"

"Yeah, I was Wolfpaw's seeker for the last 3 years. Wanna try me?"

Harry took a second to refrain himself from grabbing her, and kissing her pouting lips, but instead tossed her a stray broomstick that Madame Hooch lent him.

"Shall we make a bet?" Lia questioned.

"I'm always down for a challenge." Harry smirked.

"Alright. I catch the snitch, you let me help coach the Quidditch team up to the first match."

"Okay…. Well if I win, you'll have to let me take you out to dinner in Hogsmeade… on a date."

"Fine. Best of luck, Potter."

The two lined up on opposite ends of the field, and Hermione hesitantly opened up the rusty chest containing the bludgers and snitch. The golden ball whizzed past her head and began zooming around the field. Ophelia jumped onto the borrowed broom and nearly collided with Harry on their first turn around the field. Harry could smell the sweet scent of Lia's hair blowing in the wind as they both raced for the tiny golden ball. It seemed like hours, but only a few minutes of chase gathered an enormous crowd that watched the two students dash for the snitch. Both were equally qualified, so the chase was even more intense, and the snitch seemed to catch on to their experience. Finally, the two seekers saw the chance to obtain the snitch and accelerated their brooms to maximum speed. Harry's firebolt took lead on Lia, and his hand extended to where his fingertips brushed against the shiny gold side. A giant crash occurred and Harry could no longer be seen out on the field, but deep underneath the stands where all he could feel was pain. Lia climbed through the rubble and found Harry lying unconsciously amongst many pieces of broken wood.

* * *

"Harry… Harry… Harry…."

Harry heard his name echoing and slowly awoke; peeling his eyes open all he saw was pure white.

"Harry, are you okay? Ron he's waking up." Harry could make out Hermione's voice.

"Ron… Hermione… where am I?"

"You're in the hospital wing, Harry. You were going so fast on your firebolt that you didn't see the stands and crashed straight into them. Knocked yourself out cold."

"I caught the snitch though? Didn't I? I could feel it in my fingertips." Harry recalled the moment before the crash.

"No you didn't." Harry heard a third voice.

Lia sat in the corner, rolling the snitch in between her index finger and thumb.

"Feel better, Harry. I'll see you at practice."

Lia took her leave, letting Hermione and Ron have a little alone time with Harry. The throbbing in his left arm gave him an obvious reminder of why Madame Pomfrey was pursing her lips and shaking her wrinkled face in his direction.

"Harry lie back down! It's too soon! You need more rest." Hermione demanded.

"I feel fine Hermione. Just a bit sore. I would rather be back in the common room anyway. I never feel any better laying around here." Harry confessed, lifting his heavy legs over the side of the bed.

"That girl is going to kill you, Harry." Ron chuckled.

Ron and Hermione assisted Harry to the common room, and the farther he got, the less obvious his limp was. By the time they made it, muttered the password and got Harry into his bed, the sky was black and the common room was lit only by candlelight. Harry knew that is was going to be a long off day. They had a trip to Hogsmeade and he knew that he couldn't be lagging behind during such an exciting day. Soon, the lights burned out, and Harry's head sunk softly into his pillow, allowing ease for sleep to consume him.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Harry awoke a bit stiff, he left arm wasn't bending as fluidly as he had hoped, but the rest of him was moving as best as he could've hoped for. Harry picked out his cold weather's best, which was a nice sweater and black slacks. Ron's bed was clear and Harry was assuming that Ron had already meandered to the Great Hall for a copious breakfast. The common room had been wiped clean; many of the students had already made their way into Hogsmeade, but Harry's late rise left him nearly alone. Half hour had passed and Hermione entered the common room, dragging Ron behind her; Ron still dangling a piece of bacon from his mouth.

"He never stops eating, Harry. I'm sorry, I tried to rush him. Has Lia come down yet?"

"No, I thought I was by myself, I haven't heard anything." Harry replied.

"Oh, she probably thought we all left without her. Hold on."

Hermione dashed upstairs and returned but only a few minutes later where a pair of footsteps could be heard trailing her. Lia entered, wearing a beautiful, casual pastel blue dress, a lovely white winter coat her golden hair curled to perfection.

"Sorry guys, I figured you had all left without me. I was up there trying to navigate a map that I found. Luckily, you all are too kind to leave me. I should've known." She smiled at Hermione.

"Well, let's be on."

The four exited the common room and quickly could be seen on the trail leading into Hogsmeade. The streets were covered with Hogwarts students, faces red with cheer.

"Well where do you guys want to start?" Ron asked.

"If you all don't mind, I think I am going to step into Dogweed and Deathcap. From what I read it's a Herbology shop. I would like to pick up some plants for my dorm." Lia announced.

"Well, Ron and I wanted to go to Zonko's, so Harry, can you show Lia how to get there?"

"Well yeah"

"Perfect. Then do you all want to meet at the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer in say… an hour?"

"Butterbeer?" Lia inquired.

"Yeah, it's a drink? A butterscotch beer? Quite delicious." Ron added.

"That sounds wonderful. I'll see you two in an hour. Where to Harry?"

"Oh… uh this way." Harry took the lead and Lia walked steadily next to him.

"How are you feeling Harry? You look a little better than you did yesterday."

"I feel great, actually. Really wonderful. Those stands are so old, I flew through them like a hot knife in butter."

"I could probably fix that leg up for you, I can see you have a limp." She smirked at him.

"I'm fine, really. Thank you though."

"Here, it's right up this way." Harry pointed to the green storefront.

The two walked in and appreciated the warm air that comforted their faces. Within seconds Harry was nearly running trying to keep up with Lia as she jumped from plant to plant.

"I really wanted to grow some wild dittany in my window and make some liquid form of it. It seems more holistic if you make it that way… you know?" She beamed.

"Or maybe some nasturtium. I've always thought it to be beautiful." She got lost, smelling the sweet orange leaves.

"Yeah, it's so beautiful." Harry mumbled.

"There's so much, I just can't decide. What would you pick?"

"Well, to be honest I would probably kill anything that would be growing in my dorm… but I think you should get a small flutterby bush. They sell ones just perfect to sit in a window." Harry pointed out a small table of flutterby's in tiny black pots.

"They're perfect." Lia gleamed.

She picked the healthiest looking one and dashed off to the counter, leaving Harry behind at the table of bushes. His lip stung slightly as he noticed his teeth had it pinched in between them as he bit it, watching Lia up at the counter.

"Galleons? I have dollars. I have plenty of dollars." Lia exclaimed, putting a wad of cash out on the table.

"It's two galleons, or nuffin' girl. I don't accept dollhairs." He boomed.

"Here, take your bloody galleons." Harry retorted, tossing two galleons on the table.

"Harry, no I'll put it back. I'm stupid, I should've had my money converted."

"It's fine Lia, anyway we're running late. I am sure Ron and Hermione are already drunk waiting for us."

"Thanks Harry." She smiled again.

Pulling out a tiny purple bag, Harry was utterly confused as he watched Lia take the small plant and dip her entire arm into the sack, almost seeming to get lost inside of it. Her arm escaped unscathed, but the bag was still just as tiny, and seemed to have no contents at all.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"It's my bag. It has a charm on it, you could fit almost an entire room inside it. I brought it over here known that my schedule would be packed and I would have more books than I knew what to do with. I was planning on giving to it Hermione for Christmas. That girl has more books than anyone I know, and this back carries no weight and does not grow in size. It would be perfect for her."

"You got that right." Harry agreed.

Exiting the shop, the two had to plunge back into the bitter air to make the short walk back to the Three Broomsticks. Ron and Hermione had a table waiting for them and a round of butterbeer sitting in a circle in the center of the table.

"Sorry to keep you waiting guys, a bit of a hassle at Dogwood's." Harry apologized while he removed his jacket.

"No matter, we haven't been here more than five minutes. Ron's already wanting to leave though." Hermione laughed.

Harry caught quick notice of Ginny and Dean becoming a bit more than friendly in the corner booth.

"Take a drink, Ron. All will be fine after you finish your glass." Harry urged.

"Right." Ron shortly said, taking a ginormous gulp of butterbeer.

Lia skeptically took a sip of the golden brown drink, following in suit of the others. The drink was so sweet, it nearly melted down her throat and the next thing she knew her cup was empty.

"It's good, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"Dangerously good." She smiled back.

"Another round?" Hermione slightly slurred.

"Mione, you aren't a lightweight are you?" Lia giggled.

"A bit. But, it's all in good fun right? Next round is on me!" She clinked her glass against Ron's.

"I would love to stay, but I promised Neville I would meet him at Madame Puddifoot's. Have you heard of it?"

No one spoke, but Ron and Hermione could see Harry's face bleed of color. Lia excused herself from the table and make a swift exit from the bar. Harry, Ron and Hermione started indulging in their second glass of butterbeer.

"Old Neville is going straight for the kill asking her to Madame Puddifoot's." Ron stated, gulping down his butterbeer.

"What's so special about Neville?" Harry asked.

"Well, he's humble, and sweet, considerate… and definitely has grown into his looks over the years" Hermione hiccupped.

"I shouldn't be so harsh, Neville is a great guy. I am sure Lia sees a lot in him." Harry said, every word nearly breaking his teeth.

"Harry, don't count yourself out just yet…." Hermione trailed off.

"What?" Harry demanded answers.

"I can't say anything, but for the sake of Merlin's beard, Harry, I spend nearly 12 hours a day with her. I hear what she says. I know you fancy her, and you're not too far off by thinking she fancies you too. Can I just say that she looks great in her knickers?" Hermione wildly laughed, finishing off the rest of her drink.

"She's drunk Harry, we should take her back." Ron was embarrassed for Hermione.

"Right then. I am sure Lia will find her way back." Harry affirmed.

Right before exiting the pub, Slughorn cornered Harry in a tiny nook between the exit and their table.

"Harry! What a pleasant surprise. I've been trying to find you to join me at my Slug Club parties. You've missed two already, I expect to see you at the next one for desserts and then for my Christmas bash. You too Miss Granger."

"Of course Slughorn! Then Harry can have an excuse to rub his hands all over Lia." She chucked wildly.

"Never mind her professor. She's had a bit too much to drink." Harry apologized.

"No harm done, my boy. I'll see you two on Wednesday." Slughorn took a seat at the bar and the trio exited as quickly as they could.

Harry's chest burned with embarrassment; He had never seen Hermione be so wild and free, he wasn't anything but mad at her for saying the comment she did. The embarrassment rose from the fact that all Harry wanted to do was rub his hands all over Lia. Thoughts of romance were put on hold as Harry attempted to help Ron with Hermione draped over his back. The two recalled that Hermione had drank two butterbeers with them, then apparently slipped one down as Harry and Slughorn were exchanging words. The longer they walked, the more Harry also felt the butterbeer, which the more he recalled, the stronger it tasted. In fact, only really the first drink tasted like butterbeer, the second tasted more like sugary alcohol.

"Hermione… what did you order us that second round?"

"Well, I am not really quite positively sure…" She chortled.

"It was called the Brewmstick special. I just assumed it was a butterbeer of sorts. All I know is that two of them went down way to easy." She kicked her legs out as she rode on Ron's back.

"She's bloody blasted." Ron was able to whisper to Harry.

The whole walk back, Hermione rested her head in the nook of Ron's neck and shoulder, leaving everyone to their thoughts. Right before they reached the castle, Harry thought he could make out that Katie Bell another female classmate were only a meter or so ahead of them. Next thing he knew, his ears were ringing with the most god-awful scream and Katie was suspending twenty feet in the air. She dropped like a paper weight with a strange necklace clutched in her mittens. Hagrid pushed past the trio and lifted Katie from the snow an instructed no one to touch the necklace with their naked skin. Harry wrapped it in Hermione's scarf that was barely dangling from her neck and brought it straight to Professor McGonagall.

After only a few minutes of questioning, Ron, Harry and Hermione were warming their frozen toes at the blazing fire roaring in the common room. Hermione was barely awake with her head resting on the arm of the large embroidered chair.

"I doubt we will ever see her like that again." Ron laughed.

"She should've been more careful. None of us are 17, we could've gotten in a lot of trouble."

"I should take her to bed. Poor girl can't even keep her eyes open."

Hermione groaned.

"Alright you, come on." Ron whispered as he gently placed Hermione's arm around his neck.

The two disappeared into the unlit portion of the common room and left Harry alone. His socks began to get toasty, and he didn't feel more at ease because a fire in the common room was better than any other fireplace in the world. His eyes closed, enjoying the gently cracking of the wood, Harry was content.

"You mind if I join you?" A voice called from behind.

Lia rounded the corner, wearing a nightdress and a long white silk night robe, both hands grasping tan mugs.

"I made some hot chocolate. I thought I heard Hermione down here, but any company is nice company, right?" She gestured toward the mug.

Harry carefully pulled it toward him, appreciated the warm against his palms.

"This isn't going to kill me, is it?" Harry laughed, while taking a sip.

"Well it was meant for Hermione, so no… not this time."

The two of them enjoyed a silent moment while sipping on the chocolaty drink.

"This is delicious." Harry glowed.

"Thanks, I made it myself. It was my mom's old recipe."

"Your face still seems frozen." Lia pointed out Harry's obvious red nose.

"I haven't quite been able to warm up. My body must not be used to the cold just yet."

"I'm absolutely chilled. I must've been in the hot shower for at least twenty minutes now.

"Have you been back long? Did Neville get you back here okay?" Harry almost demanded answers.

"Oh Neville, right. Well, after our date, if you even call it that, He was flustered about something and asked if it was okay if he excused himself. I figured it would be fine, so I went back to the Three Broomsticks and all I could find was a drunk Slughorn"

"I attempted to get back on my own, but got horribly lost. I followed the castle, I could see it from the edge of Hogsmeade, but actually getting there was harder than it looked. Draco actually found me and brought me back."

"Malfoy? There's no way it was him."

"I know who Draco is. I am starting to tutor him in transfiguration starting on Monday. He was out taking a walk on the edge of the castle and saw me trying to figure out the grounds. He's much nicer than he gives off."

"I can't believe Neville actually left you, to even the point that Draco had to find you."

"Neville is sweet. He was just a bit preoccupied."

"You like him." Harry blurted out. "I'm sorry, it's not my business."

"Neville is handsome. He is kind, and gentle. But I think Neville is just too agreeable for me. Half of our conversation revolved around things he and Luna had done throughout the week. Kind of hard to start sparks when there's already a fire somewhere else, ya know?" Lia admitted.

The fire began to dim slightly, and Harry took no hesitation in to using his wand to twirl up a few more ferocious flames.

"Is that warm enough?" Harry nervously asked.

"Perfect, thank you." She smiled into her cup.

"Lia, I want to be careful around Malfoy. Something isn't right about him lately."

"I've got Draco. Don't worry."

"You don't-"

"Harry, don't worry about me. Please, I understand your concern, but I don't need your protection from him. He's a scared boy, don't worry."

Harry stood from the couch, now hovering over the fire. It bugged him that Lia didn't need him, but he also felt a stronger attachment to her because of what a strong witch she was. He paced a few times and heard Lia clear her throat, she also stood from the chair and joined Harry only a few feet from the fireplace.

"You're much sweeter than I imagined, Harry Potter." She smiled.

Harry thought of a hundred things to say, but nothing left his lips from being so taken aback from the compliment.

"But not too sweet." She winked.

After a quick bite on her lip, she flipped around and placed her foot on the first step ascending up to the dorms.

"Goodnight Harry, don't stay up too late."

"Lia…." He trailed off.

"Goodnight, Lia. I'll see you around, yeah?" He said, inching toward her.

"I'm sure I'll see you bright and early tomorrow, Harry."

"Yeah, I'd like that." He said, Lia now only a few inches away from him.

"Just do it, Harry."

"Do what?" He whispered.

"Your lips gave you away days ago, Potter." She muttered, with Harry's lips so close to hers that she could smell a slight residue of cologne on his neck.

Harry gently place his lips on hers and felt a strand of her hair dangle against his face. She tasted to sweet, like the delectable hot chocolate they indulged in only minutes before. Harry's dangling hand slid around her back, pulling her harder into him, now intensifying the moment. One hand on her lower back, and one hand tangled into her damp hair, Harry was unable to control himself. He wanted more, he wanted to slide his hand up the side of her nightdress, he wanted to entangle her panties with his fingers, but he didn't. Harry stopped; his inner desires moved faster than he thought was acceptable to treat a girl who he had feelings for. His lips left hers, their foreheads rested gently against each other.

"Harry… " She exasperated.

"Goodnight Lia." Harry whispered, kissing her sweetly once more. The two parted, and slept with giant curled lipped smiles the entire night.


	4. Chapter 4

Monday had come, and Harry was so entirely busy with classes and visiting Dumbledore that it was near night until he had a chance to see if Lia was around. With a fruitless attempt, Harry retreated back into the common room, where Hermione and Ron were sitting on the embroidered couch together.

"Don't look so excited to see us." Ron said, Harry could catch a slight irritation in his voice.

"Don't mind him, Harry. Him and Ginny just got into it because…. well Ginny and Dean were snogging right here on the couches when we got back from dinner."

"Its like the common room is just the place for all sorts of inappropriate behavior. Isn't that right Harry?"

"What?" Harry acted surprised.

"Walked down here because I was making sure you didn't go off and do something crazy, barely got over the first step and saw you and Lia. I take it she doesn't hate you anymore?"

"Get off it Ron."

"Yeah Ron, I think you are overreacting. Harry kissed Cho last year, Ginny is almost 16 and well… I kissed Viktor a few years ago. " Hermione admitted.

"You did what? You didn't tell me you kissed Krum!" Ron seemed nearly enraged.

"You're not my keeper Ron, I don't have to tell you everything!" Hermione bellowed.

"That's a big thing to keep from me!" He yelled back.

"You're so vile!" Hermione shouted as she stomped out of the common room, and straight into her dorm.

After the commotion had cleared, Harry noticed that Lia was standing in the dark hallway leading into the common room. Ron scoffed and also took an unpleasant leave straight up to his dorm.

"Not a good time to make an entrance, huh?"

"You.. I was looking for you earlier." Harry stumbled over his words.

"I was tutoring Draco, remember? That boy couldn't turn a cup into a frog for the life of him-"

"I should really go to her, Harry." Lia urged, staring upon the wide staircase leading to their dorm.

"When can I see you next?"

"Well, we have classes tomorrow, but I am assuming I am going to have to make sure Hermione doesn't blow Ron to the moon."

"What about the morning, before class?"

"Headmaster Fink and I meet for coffee on Tuesday mornings."

"Night?"

"I tutor Draco until about 8:30, so we could meet for dessert here, if you would like to?"

"Ron and I are practicing his skills tomorrow before we start real team practice on Thursday, I promised him."

"Wednesday! We've got to be able to spare a few minutes on Wednesday."

"Wednesday I have Slug Club in the evening, and a meeting with Dumbledore. I swear if I don't go, Slughorn is going to kidnap me."

"Dumbledore wants to see you Wednesday too?" Lia wondered.

"Yes? I meet with him twice a week, every week…. He's been meeting with you?"

"This is actually the first time he's asked to meet. Wednesday afternoon. He wants to personally help me in my Defense Against the Dark Arts. I guess Fink said a student teaching position to open at Eaglecrest, and he wants me ready for it, so I'll be meeting with Dumbledore on Wednesdays and assisting Snape in class."

"Why are you so brilliant?"

Lia smiled, then could only imagine the distress Hermione could be in all alone up in her dorm.

"I should be with her Harry. She's bloody loves that boy." Lia exited with a kiss on Harry's cheek, then quickly disappeared into Hermione's dorm.

A rush of Gryffindor's came bounding through the door, all full and cheerful from dinner. Neville was the last Gryffindor through the threshold, who seemed to line the edge of the room, afraid Harry would Avada Kedavra him where he stood.

"Neville, what are you doing?"

"Harry!" Neville nearly shrieked his name.

"Harry, I am so sorry, Lia.. I didn't know I just-"

"Neville, you have nothing to apologize for."

"Wait, you aren't mad with me?" Neville calmed himself.

"Why would I be?"

"I asked Lia on a date?" Neville inquired.

"You fairly asked her on a date before I did. No one can have claims on her Neville, she makes her own decisions. You made the first move." Harry smiled.

"Well, she's very beautiful, Harry. She's outright the prettiest girl in all of Hogwarts… well except for one." Neville blushed.

"Goodnight Neville, please stop creeping around, its weird."

Harry excused himself from Neville and realized he was rather hungry. He kept a stash of snacks under his bed, which was his next destination anyway. Up the same steps he went, through his wooden door, straight into his room where he saw Ron with a pillow bunched into his chest. Harry could see that Ron was upset, but didn't have the courage to pry him for what was on his mind. The tiny plate of pastries had mostly half eaten pumpkin pasties and a few piece of lemon candies. Quietly, he munched on the crumbs of the pasty and laid in bed looking through his the book of The Half Blood Prince. There was a tiny knock on the door, and Ron wasn't in any condition to answer it. The open door revealed a beautiful silver platter with a plate covered in a delicious looking sandwich, and another tiny plate full of an overly large slice of apple pie. The sandwich had a tiny American flag waving, with a note tucked under the plate.

"_Harry, stop eating rubbish under your bed. Give the pie to Ron, and tell him to stop sniveling_."

"That's from your girlfriend isn't it?" Ron whispered through the pillow.

"The pie is for you." Harry handed over the plate.

"Harry, did you know that Hermione kissed Krum?" Ron said with half his mouth full of pie.

"I dunno Ron, she never told me, but I just figured. We are all almost adults now, I just kind of assume that you guys are kissing people."

"I haven't. I haven't ever snogged a girl."

"Well Ron, you're not…. unattractive. You just need initiative."

"Coming from the chosen one." Ron hissed.

"Ron, may I remind you that Lia literally hated my guts when she came here. Stop crying and get yourself out there."

Harry rolled over in his bed and wolfed down the sandwich that he had never tasted before. The little American flag fit beautifully right on Harry's nightstand, so it was the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes to sleep.

* * *

Wednesday afternoon had arrived quickly and Harry was sitting snugly in Dumbledore's office waiting to dive his face into Voldemort's memories. Harry and Dumbledore shared the moment when Albus had first met Tom in the orphanage, as just tiny child. This memory chilled Harry, he saw the evil manifesting as a small boy in his tiny room at the orphanage. No sooner that Harry was in Dumbledore's office, he was already heading out with the image of Tom Riddle haunting his mind. Harry knew that he only had roughly an hour to get to Slug Club, which he was dreading before it even started. Dumbledore seemed to insist that Harry give in to the requests of Slughorn, so he put his reservations aside, and rushed back to the common room to begin getting ready. To his surprise, Lia and Hermione were in the common room, Hermione with a DADA book in her lap, and Lia with a curling iron in her hand and a piece of Hermione's hair in the other.

"If you are being attacked by an Inerfi, what is attacking you, and what should you do?" Hermione asked.

"An Inferi, is a reincarnated dead body, and should be battled with fire. Inferi are created in the branch of Necromancy." Lia rattled off, while spraying a compressed can onto Hermione's hair.

"Good Ophelia! Brilliant!" Hermione jumped.

"Don't jump, Hermione. I don't want to accidently burn your scalp!"

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Harry asked.

"Just studying, and getting Hermione ready for Slug Club." Lia smiled.

"Lia has to have her ducks in a row if she's going to be student teaching with Snape."

"Harry, do you have an outfit to wear?" Lia demanded, with her curling iron pointed straight at him.

"Well…. I was just going to wear this." He said, gesturing to his jeans and sweater.

"I am sure you have a nicer sweater than that. You guys are little celebrities to good old Horace, you have to dress like them. Okay, Hermione, your hair is all done. "

Hermione jumped from the floor and sprinted to her dorm, Harry seemed unmoved by the excitement. Lia used her wand to wrap up the iron, and Harry was soon being dragged up into his dorm, which was surprisingly empty.

"Ron.. where's Ron? He should be here."

"One look at Hermione in the common room and he stomped back out. He's upset that Slughorn didn't invite him to his club meetings. I am assuming he is spending his time at the field practicing."

Lia ruffled through Harry's closet, tossing shirts over her shoulder, where Harry was using his wand to keep them in a neat pile.

"A whole damn closet, and I can't find one nice shirt. Harry Potter, what I am going to do with you?" She turned and smiled.

"Ah! I've hit the jackpot." She yelled, pulling an article out of the closet.

A bright blue button-up shirt was clutched in Lia's hand, and she held it up to Harry's chest.

"This is the one. It brings out your eyes." She beamed.

Harry began lifting his shirt over his head, and the upper bare half of his body took Lia back a few steps. Diving his arms into the sleeves, Lia buttoned up the front, enjoying being so close to Harry, and being able to touch his chest with her bare knuckles.

"Harry, you're so pale." She chuckled, while still holding the unbuttoned portions of his shirt.

"I know." He laughed back.

Harry couldn't help himself, he kissed her again; the thought of his shirt being half unbuttoned and Lia so close to him nearly drove him mad.

"Harry, you're going to be late. You have to go now." She broke the kiss, and finished buttoning up his shirt and using her fingers to fix his hair.

"Right." He said, after tucking in his shirt.

"You look great and it only took a few minutes. Now come on, you know Slughorn doesn't like tardiness."

She rushed him out of his dorm, flicking her wand, which simultaneously made Harry's clothes hang themselves back up into the closet. Hermione was standing in the common room tapping her foot with a clutch in her hand.

"Go on you two. Have fun!" Lia sent Harry off with a peck on the cheek.

Hermione and Harry nearly ran to Slughorn's office, passing Ron who was covered in mud holding a broomstick. Harry waved and Hermione snickered, but neither had time to stop and ask him what he was doing. Luckily, everyone was just gathered around talking in Slughorn's office, and no one had taken a seat yet at his large round table. Harry was the first to grab an open chair as he watched Slughorn get impatient for everyone to settle themselves in. Hermione naturally took the seat next to Harry, and Neville sat alongside her. Slughorn waved in for large dishes of ice cream to be brought in, and the all floated lovely in front of each student. Horance was delighted to see Harry's face, as if he actually glowed watching Harry sit and take bites of his chocolate ice cream.

"So Harry, it's nice of you to join us. As most of you know, Harry's parents were also a part of my little clubs so naturally young Mr. Potter fits right in."

"What about you Miss Granger, your parents do what now in the muggle word?"

Hermione went on about her father's profession as a dentist, as Harry's stomach started to fill. The table went around and everyone discussed their parents and what they did in the muggle or magical world. Harry wondered why he even came at all, seeing as the Slughorn didn't even ask him to elaborate on his parents. He felt a sense of guilt, as he sat there being pampered and Lia and Ron were back in the common room all alone. Although he was most certainly bored, it was still better than being alone. The night dwindled down and Slughorn ended the club with individually asking the students if they would like to come to his big Christmas party.

"You plus one, Potter, so bring a nice date. I see you around that Lia lass, I tried getting her to come to Slug Club, but she's denied every request. See it that she makes it to my Christmas party." Slughorn insisted as he assisted Harry from his quarters.

Hermione was already long gone, after Cormac nearly chased her from the room. Harry took the long way back to the common room, the sugar rush from the ice cream made him feel more happy than usual. He strolled past the vacant courtyard and saw a full vanilla colored moon high in the sky. There were green vines growing on the walls, which Harry always remembered as just plain old vines. As the moon climbed higher, he saw small buds open into small glittering flowers. He picked a bouquet of them, and tried to recall in Herbology what they were, but in the end could come up with nothing. Filch was hurrying students out of the hallway, and Harry slipped undetected to the Grand Staircase. Harry spoke the password to the Fat Lady in the painting and she let him in with shifty eyes, seeming jealous over the sparkling flowers. Harry could see the flames of a dim fire, and a bright blue light illuminating in front of it. The closer he got, he could see Lia sitting on the floor, one leg with a book on it, the other bent. The blue light was a patronus, a wolf to be specific, and Lia's freehand not holding down the book was petting it.

"Oh Harry, you're back." Lia said, closing the book on her leg.

The patronus inched toward Harry and began to growl, as if it were a real animal, and Harry didn't doubt it's bite.

"Apollo, no, no. He's fine." Lia called to the charm.

The animal backed off, and vaporized back in to Lia's wand.

"Are those for me, Harry?" Lia sweetly asked.

"Lia, your patronus…."

"What's wrong with him?" She got defensive.

"Nothing, that was absolutely astounding, how did you-"

"I don't know, one day he came out of the wand while I was practicing the patronus charm, and the name just came to me. Now he comes out whenever I call or when he gets lonely... If a patronus is able to even feel boredom."

Harry was speechless, he had never heard of a patronus actually taking a personality and being somewhat pet-like. He couldn't even imagine the kind of power is needed from a witch to create such magic.

"You didn't wreck the stem, I think I can actually replant these and make them grow in our dorm."

"_Our_ dorm?" Harry nearly hissed.

"Yeah, there was an extra bed with Hermione and Ginny, and they asked if I wanted to take it. It was only used to hold their junk, so I agreed. It's nice not being alone stuffed in between two male dorms. They don't mind my plants, and definitely not my books."

"Enough about me, Harry, how was Slug Club." She gestured for them to sit.

"It was boring, really. The best thing was the chocolate ice cream… and"

Harry gulped, he knew that Lia liked him, but that line of "girlfriend" was still blurred. Harry never properly asked Lia to be his girlfriend, and the thought alone made his palms sweaty.

"And…." Lia waited impatiently.

"Slughorn is having a Christmas party, and we're allow to bring a date. And I was thinking, because I am sure you'll be here over holiday, and I know, well I think you like me, and I was just wonder-"

"Of course, Harry. I would be delighted."

Gently, she tossed another log on the fire, not losing interest and seeing right through Harry, knowing there was more on his mind.

"Lia, I just… I need to clarify things." Harry stumbled through his sentence.

"Out with it." She grinned.

"Well, I am not seeing anyone else. I don't want to see anyone else. I like you, I like you a lot. Are you seeing anyone else?"

"Of course not, Harry. I have a bit more decency than to kiss more than one boy in a period of time."

"I didn't mean to offend you-"

"I know, Harry. You're cute, but go on."

"I've just never really had the chance to say this, so it's very awkward for me to try and word. But Lia, I want you to be mine, and me to be yours. Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

Lia bit down on her lip and hopped from the couch to stop Harry's two hands from shaking.

"I was only going to give you a few more days before I asked you my damn self. Harry, I was yours a long time ago."


	5. Chapter 5

A couple weeks passed of horribly busy schedules and too little of precious free time between the small group of friends. Besides at Quidditch practice, Harry could count on one hand the time he was able to spend with his new girlfriend. After all he had been through, he wasn't sure if he was even going to live to see himself have a girlfriend, let alone have one so beautiful and brilliant. Gryffindor's first Quidditch match was right around the corner and surprisingly with Lia and Ginny by Harry's side, the team was really pulling together. Harry knew this match was a huge deal, it was against Slytherin, and he knew he couldn't afford a loss as a captain against their rivals.

The day came where the Gryffindors were all proudly flashing their scarlet and gold colors. The trio headed down to breakfast, knowing that the halls would be buzzing, because even a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw were just as excited to watch Green battle Scarlet on the Quidditch field. Harry didn't have to wait for Lia, due to the fact that she was nearly always awake before the boys, and usually studying down in the common room. This morning in particular, she was already in full Gryffindor garb, ready to cheer on her fellow Gryffindor students. Down in the Great Hall, Ron could barely eat his bountiful breakfast from being so worried about the match. Even after all of his practicing, he still didn't feel up to par with the rest of his team.

"You alright Ron?" Lia asked across the table, not being able to ignore the paleness in Ron's cheeks.

"No, I am not bloody alright. I am about to be the laughing stock of all of Hogwarts."

"Don't talk like that Ron, I know you'll do just fine." Harry assured him as he ate his muffin.

"I've been practicing everyday, I swear I am getting worse!" He shrieked.

"Ron, you're a brilliant keeper. Remember what we trained, eye on the prize, and close your mind to anything other than that ball, okay?"

"Lia, I appreciate the pep talk, but this pressure is just too much. I think I am going to be sick."

Harry had an idea, knowing his best friend for as long as he did, he knew exactly what kind of boost he needed. Harry slipped the Felix Felicis from his pant pocket and flashed it so Ron could see the bottle. Hermione's eyes grew three times in size and had to constraint every muscle in her arm to not smack it out of his hand. Harry grabbed Ron's cup and held it under the table; Ron's expression lightened immediately.

"Babe, don't." Lia boldly stated.

The entire Gryffindor table heard what Lia said and went silent. All eyes were on Harry, waiting for his reply. Luckily, Ron's cup was already back in his hands, and attached to his lips as he guzzled it down. Harry couldn't fathom what to say, he just stared blankly at Seamus and Dean as they waited for him to say something back. He could feel the heat of Lia's eyes staring against his neck, which caused him to make a rash decision and kiss her in front of the entire Great Hall. Seamus cheered, and a few other students followed. Hermione shot a big-toothed smile right in Lia's direction, knowing how much that meant to her. Ron stood from the table, with color now in his face, and seeming ten times more confident than only minutes earlier.

"Let's do this, Harry!"

Ron sprinted from the table, leaving the rest of the group behind. Harry knew he should be right behind Ron, getting to the field and warming up. Hermione and Lia said goodbye to Ginny and wished her luck, then Lia turned to Harry knowing that he must have a sense of nerve getting to him.

"I saw that you didn't put any Felix in Ron's drink…. Smart move, Potter."

"Just send your luck my way, okay?" He said, kissing Lia, and smiling straight through the kiss.

"Keep your heads out of the clouds, Harry. I know you'll do fine"

The two parted and Harry headed straight to the field, feeling a boost of confidence and ready to play a great match. The entire team was already on midfield doing their warm ups, Ron seeming to be over the top about his. Harry made a few rounds on his lightening bolt, making sure that his riding skills hadn't gotten rusty. Slytherin entered the field, and with their arrival, the stands began to fill with students. Harry saw Hermione and Lia enter immediately, both of them with large flags, Lia's painted in black lettering that said "POTTER". Harry smiled, but he knew that he couldn't become too focused with what he best friend and girlfriend were doing in the stands.

* * *

Minutes later the game began and Gryffindor knocked it out of the park. Not one chaser could get anything past Ron, and Harry kept Draco at bay, flying better than Draco could ever imagine. The team started off the Quidditch season with not allowing one goal to be scored against them. The huge win caused uproar, and Gryffindors rushed back to the common room preparing for one of the largest parties of the year.

The common room was filled to the brim with students, music was blaring and bottles of pumpkin juice were all toasted in the air due to the first win of the year. Ron was lifted above the crowd while they all chanted, "Weasley is our King." With his descent, Lavender Brown was able to snatch Ron before his feet even met the carpet and began snogging him in front of the entire common room. The crowd yelled with excitement and everyone continued to party, with deafening modern music and scarlet and gold flying through the air. Lia sat on Harry's lap on the edge of the couch, shielding Hermione from the intense kissing across the room between Ron and Lavender. Hermione wasn't dumb, she could clearly see it, and the tears were only moments from breaking the levy into a total meltdown. Lia snatched Hermione's hand and brought her to the edge of the room, clearly far away from Ron and Lavender.

"Fix your eyeliner, Mione. I've got someone for you to meet."

"What, what are you talking about?" She tried to let out small broken chuckles.

"I know you love that red haired brute, but you can't hole yourself up like some dying maiden. There's someone in who has been asking about you lately, take a few more sips of pumpkin juice and I'll wave him over, okay?"

"Yeah, alright." She said, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes.

Lia disappeared for only a few seconds and came back, dragging a familiar boy behind her.

"Jim, you said that you wanted to talk to Hermione… about charms class, right?"

Hermione recognized Jim and from what she could recall, he was an above average American student. He stood nearly a foot above her, with bright blonde hair and blue eyes.

"You look lovely tonight, Miss Granger."

Lia slowly backed out of the picture and met Harry back in the middle of the commotion. Harry welcomed her back onto his lap and handed her a bottle of butterbeer, which Lia was excited to see that Seamus was able to get from Hogsmeade. Next thing Harry knew, both of his best friends were off snogging in opposite corners of the common room, and he couldn't be happier for them.

"Jealous?" Lia whispered into Harry's ear.

Harry slipped his hand over Lia's waist, "Maybe a little."

Both of them gravitated toward the middle of the dancing, and Harry couldn't keep his hands off of Lia. They both excused Harry's poor dancing, and just enjoyed their bodies being pressed against each other. Harry noticed Ron and Hermione had both disappeared with their dates, and Harry couldn't even imagine where they had gone to and what they were doing. Harry felt this urge, which he hadn't felt before, it was stronger than any feeling he could imagine from his past. Watching Lia dance, smile, and touch him was a combination that made Harry's stomach burn with a certain passion. He wanted her, in more ways than just innocently kissing her. Harry wasn't certain if he was going to even be alive a few short months from now, so he didn't want to lose his life without properly loving a woman. Gently backing Lia up, he began wildly kissing her, more passionately than before. Lia felt the fire within Harry, and felt comfortable reciprocating the affection. Unlike Harry's normal awkwardness, he flawlessly was able to bring Lia up to his dorm, not skipping a beat in the mood. Luckily, wherever Ron and Lavender were, it wasn't in Ron's bed, so Harry and Lia had the room to themselves. For one minute Harry froze, he seized the moment, he finally had intentions that were solely for him, and he wanted to be selfish. Lia's tousled blonde hair, and side mouthed smile drove him mad, and he couldn't control himself. Lia's light blouse was easily removed over her head, Harry planted kisses on her bare pale stomach. For never even seeing a girl in her undergarments before, Harry felt as if he was doing a good job in keeping Lia engaged, and far from bored. Harry also removed his shirt, feeling his bare skin against hers was enough of a catharsis itself. The hook came undone on Lia's bra, and Harry immediately gravitated toward her breasts, leaving them far from unintended. Listening to Lia moan proved to Harry that he was a natural, and that his intentions with her were almost meant to be.

Lia didn't show it, but she was more self-conscious than Harry could ever imagine. Lia was beautiful, but lying in Harry's bed, topless made her feel inadequate. One of the most famous young wizards of her time, was planting kisses on her breasts, and she could only partially focus on it. Harry was thin, and while Lia wasn't out of shape, her curves were obvious in her big American hips. What Lia thought were flaws, Harry found them to be irresistible as he pulled her pants off of her legs.

"You're beautiful Lia, so beautiful." Harry whispered against her neck.

Harry's hand slipped under Lia's underwear and he began doing something to her that he couldn't have ever imagined would happen inside of Hogwarts walls. Although Lia's head was thrown back, and her mouth was letting out tiny moans, Harry didn't feel like he was doing his best of pleasuring her. His hand retrieved back onto Lia's midsection, and his lips planted firmly against her neck.

"I want to speak Parseltongue between your legs." Harry breathed against her.

Lia said nothing, but Harry's confidence drove her senseless. She had never gone this far with another boy, but something about Harry felt right, so she allowed Harry to continue to trail his lips down her stomach. Soon all she could see what the top of Harry's head, but all she could think about was the extreme pleasure he was giving her. Lia nearly lost her breath with every second Harry continued, so far to the point that she was tugging on the top of his head. After Lia, climaxed, Harry knew that he had accomplished what he wanted, and felt thoroughly satisfied. She didn't waste time in reciprocating the favor, and next thing Harry knew, he was on his back experiencing pleasure in a way he hadn't known before.

After a while of foreplay, the two stopped as Lia sat completely naked on top of him. Both of them were scared, and knew how far they could take the moment, but weren't sure if they should. Harry wrapped his arms around the small of Lia's back, and buried his head into her stomach. Lia separated herself from him, and laid comfortably next to him, pulling strands of black hair from his green eyes.

"Lia…" Harry whispered.

Her blue eyes stared right into his, with her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth.

"I will only go farther if you want to."

"You know, I don't know why but this all feels right." She whispered back.

Harry climbed on top of her, and kissed her gently, allowing him to position himself between her legs. Lia could feel Harry against her body, and her stomach fluttered, the excitement started for the moment about to come. Harry kissed her once more on the lips before he concentrated on other parts of her body. Lia felt pressure enter her, and a soft moan left Harry's lips. The pleasure was overwhelming for Harry and he was soon reassured as Lia grabbed the back of his neck and moaned into his ear. Harry continued the satisfying motion, feeding into the passion as Lia clawed at his back. Soon the feeling began to build, and Harry felt an infinite amount of pleasure as the two began moaning louder than intended.

After Harry had finished, and two lay together admiring the moments before Harry knew that Ron was going to be coming back to finally sleep. The two pieced their clothes back on, and without a moment to spare, Ron had busted into the room with pink lipstick smeared all over his face and neck.

"Bloody hell, it's been a crazy night."


	6. Chapter 6

More busy weeks passed where Harry hadn't heard from Dumbledore at all, which surprisingly didn't shock him. Ron was busier than ever, balancing Lavender smothering him, and becoming the most popular Quidditch player in school. Harry couldn't complain, the spotlight was off of him and his relationship; it was nice to earn a little peace and quiet. Harry kept playing over in his mind what happened after Gryffindor won their first match of the season, and couldn't help but wonder if he had moved too fast. Ron was the only one he could talk to about this; Harry barely saw Lia on the school days, and even if he did the last thing he wanted to do was throw a wrench in the only thing that had made him happy in years. Harry was able to catch Ron after transfiguration, where the two spent the morning successfully turning vinegar into wine. The two grabbed plates of food and retreated onto the edge of the Black Lake.

"Harry don't you think it's a bit cold to be eating outside today?"

"Well sure is it Ron, but I told you that I had to talk to you about something in _private_. You know that nothing inside the walls of Hogwarts is private."

"Alright, don't be so touchy, out with it then."

"The night… after the Quidditch game…"

"You heard about that…. bloody hell, that girl has a big mouth." Ron exasperated while shoving a sandwich into his mouth.

"Heard about what?" Harry inquired.

"Oh.. well… nothing really…. I just…." Ron trailed off with his mouth full.

"You and Lavender…"Harry smirked.

"She's an animal, Harry. We did a bit more than snogging that night."

"Now I don't feel so bad."

"Wait, you…?" Ron carefully asked.

"Well, I really like Lia, Ron. More than any other girl, it just felt right at the time."

"You went…. you know, all the way?"

"Yeah." Harry couldn't stand looking at his best friend's face.

"How was it?"

"Fantastic." Harry smiled.

"Lavender and I didn't ….. you know… but we did things. "

"Good for you, Ron."

"I mean hell, we are 16, there's no reason we shouldn't be giving in to our needs, right? Although, I reckon Hermione will never talk to me again after she finds that out."

"Well, she had a bit of a time herself that night…. Her and some American guy disappeared not too long after you and Lavender…. I assuming they weren't studying charms."

The two finished their food, and trudged back up to the castle to grab a few hot glasses of chocolate. The minute they entered, Lavender stormed across the Great Hall and attached herself to Ron's side.

"Oh Won Won, I've been looking for you all morning! We had to … study… this morning… remember?" She urged him, with a near psychopathic look in her eyes.

"Right, Lavender, I am just going to grab a cup of chocolate. Harry and I went for a walk outside, and we are chilled." Ron tried to pull away from her.

"I'll warm you up, Won." She said as she yanked him from Harry's side.

After Ron was dragged from the Great Hall, Harry couldn't help but notice his attention being drawn to the edge of hall, recognizing a curled mess of blonde hair in the far corner. Draco's face was peaking out from the side of the blonde head, focusing in on a page lying against the table. Right away he recognized Lia, and it infuriated him to the point where his fingernails left dents in his palms. Why didn't she listen to him? Harry could feel it in his bones that whatever plan Voldemort had with the Death Eaters that Draco was the new shining star coordinating it all. Harry usually would leave Draco alone, but the image of him near anyone he cared about was more than enough to cause him to interfere.

"Harry, would you like to join us in studying for the transfiguration midterm?" Lia asked as Harry inched toward them.

"No, I would fancy not to." Harry spat back at her.

"Harry… are you-"

"I'll see you later then." Harry charged off, not being able to stand Draco's blue eyes staring back at him.

The minute Harry left the Great Hall, he felt the anger rush from him and he knew that he was wrong. The entire time Draco said nothing, he wasn't sneering like usually. Actually, when he recalled the moment where Draco noticed him, there was more a fearful look in his eyes versus the usual hatred. Harry didn't even make it to the common room before Lia was able to track him down in the hallways.

"Harry!" She called off, the irritation in her voice was more than obvious.

"Lia I-"

"Harry James Potter, what in the hell was that?"

"I just, I just couldn't control my jealousy, seeing you with him."

"Well, you better get yourself in check, because I will not stand to be humiliated like that."

"I'm sorry. Draco and I don't get along, and I hate that you're tutoring him. That's all."

"Guess what Harry, I am going to tutor Draco and you're just going to have to deal with it."

"I just don't get how you don't see that he is a Death Eater. He's on Voldemort's side and you are just aiding him!" Harry switched over back into anger.

"I never said that I didn't believe that Draco is a Death Eater. That much is clear to me. Harry you see so much in black and white you don't see what I am doing here. Draco is a scared boy. He is literally just a kid Harry, and all he wants to do is impress his father. He can change. We all can change, I just wish you could see that."

"Ophelia, I just need to explain to you this. My godfather was murdered because of Draco's family and what they believe in only a few months ago. My parents were murdered because of their cause. I literally have watched every person I love die because of Voldemort. When I see you right on that line, I worry that I could lose you."

"Harry, Draco wasn't holding that wand. You have to see that. You have to let me do this, okay? Dumbledore personally asked me to do this. If he didn't think it was utterly important, I wouldn't."

Harry nodded, he didn't entirely agree, but he knew that she had valid points, and neither of them was going to change their mind otherwise.

Harry retreated back to the common room, allowing Lia and Hermione take the rest of the day to go to Hogsmeade and pick out brand new dresses for Slughorn's Christmas Party. Ron still hadn't escaped from Lavender's clutches, so Harry took the time to study The Half Blood Prince's potions book. Harry was amazed by the time and effort taken by the Prince to dissect the book and nearly rewrite it as just a student. There were four spells written in the up right corner of the last page of the book, Sectumsempra, Levicorpus, Langlock, and Muffiato. Harry hadn't ever heard of any of the spells, even with a little research nothing came about. The only clue he had was scribbled in front of sectumsempra that read "For Enemies." But even Harry wasn't dim enough to attempt to see what that actually meant.

Hours later the girls returned, and Ron was released from the clutches of Lavender, and the four sat quite awkwardly on the couches in the common room. Hermione couldn't stand looking in Ron's direction and Ron didn't complain about not receiving her attention for that matter anyway. The both of them had heard the whispers leaking through the grape vine about the night after Gryffindor won their first match.

"Harry I bought you a nice shirt at Gladrags.. I figured you wouldn't have one that would match my dress for the Christmas party…. Sssoooo."

"Oh, yeah. Of course, I am glad you think of these things." Harry smiled.

"I'll go put it away." Lia exited, realizing that the best friends needed time to work things out.

The trio didn't speak; Harry fidgeted becoming increasingly anxious with the tension so thick it was suffocating him. He prayed to hear Lia's light footsteps coming down the flight to break the stiffness, but for what seemed like hours, he heard nothing.

"Harry, Lia bought some other things for you while we were down there. She really adores you." Hermione finally shook the silence.

"She did, that's lovel-"

"I heard people have been adoring you too, Hermione." Ron directed toward her.

"Don't you dare, Ronald. Don't you even dare. "

"What, just hearing what goes around…"

"You talk is if you're jealous." She shot at him.

"I-I-I wouldn't-"

"Keep your nose out of my business, and back into Lavender's"

Harry nearly was ready to run at this point. Not only was this extremely awkward for him, it also upset him. Never had he felt like the three of them didn't have this electric chemistry, but with every second longer the two bickered its like their battery was dying out.

"Harry…"

A voice came from midway down the stairs, halting the nonsensical squabbling in the background. Harry turned and saw Lia with a few packages in her hands, but he had not recognized any of it.

"Your bed was covered in cards and chocolates…and notes…."

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Harry seemed confused.

"It looks like they all are aware the Christmas party is happening soon…. I guess they don't realize you're with someone. Why would they?" Lia said, but Harry could see her eyes becoming glossy.

"Lia, I don't-"

"I'm tired, Harry. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? It's been a long day." Lia brushed passed Harry and went straight for the dorms.

Hermione stood, going to chase after Lia, but hesitated.

"Harry, I saw some girls earlier going by your dorm, I think Romilda even made a love potion so you would ask her to Slughorn's party. Be careful what you eat and drink, okay? I'll go talk to her."

"Thanks Hermione."

Hermione exited and Ron followed closely behind Harry as he picked up the couple of boxes that Lia dropped on the floor before she fled the common room. The boxes were covered in hearts and tiny flirty messages; even his bed was covered in notes, some of them were more explicit than Harry had anticipated. He completely understood why Lia would feel the way she did, because Harry even felt odd.

"Here, take these. I know how much you like chocolate." Harry handed over his candies.

Ron lit up and shoved all of the contraband under his bed.

"Don't worry, Harry. She'll get over it."

"I feel like I should go talk to her." Harry admitted.

"You do what you need to, Harry." Ron said, lying back in his bed.

Harry took leave and knew that he had to go talk to his girlfriend, or that's at least what his gut said to do. Harry had never been on Hermione's side of the Gryffindor dorms. He had a slight idea where her dorm was, and by his surprise he could hear Hermione's voice very lightly from the end of the hall. The door was cracked and a little light was peaking through; Harry could hear crying.

"Mione…." The voice sobbed.

"I knew I was never good enough for him. All those girls, they want him so bad. "

"Lia, they just want to get into the Christmas party." Hermione comforted her.

"No, maybe that's a part of it. But Harry…. Harry is extraordinary. He's handsome, and funny, and smart, and bloody The Chosen One….. and Hermione, his eyes, god any girl could fall in love with those eyes."

Harry felt so humbled by what Lia said, because he thought so highly of her, the words really meant everything to him.

"I'm just Lia. I am nothing. You know? I'm not thin, I'm not-"

"Perfect." Harry pushed the door open.

"Lia you are perfect. You are so much more than you'll ever know. "

The two girls stood from Hermione's bed in shock; Harry stepped toward Lia.

"Lia, you are the smartest woman I've ever know. That barely even holds a candle to your beauty. There is not one girl on this planet that could take you away from me. Out of millions of letters and cards…. There is not one love potion strong enough to make thing you aren't the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I am nothing compared to you. So stop crying, your tears are worth too much, especially over them."

Harry pulled Lia in, and her soft hair consumed his neck, and Harry once again felt that sense of feeling home with her in his arms.


	7. Chapter 7

"Harry don't you forget to put on that tie that Lia bought you." Hermione yelled up the steps as she pinned up the last pieces of her hair.

"Oh, where did I put those bloody shoes?" Hermione said to herself as she stormed around the common room.

"Hermione, is Lia back yet? We have to leave soonish to get to Slughorn's on time, right?" Harry called down as he rolled the cuffs of his sleeves.

"She was supposed to be leaving Slytherin common room at 5, she should be here any minute!"

"Are you talking about me?" Lia said as she zoomed past Hermione, running up the dorm stairs.

"I will be ready in 20 minutes!" She called from the top of the stairs.

"Harry get down here now!" Hermione yelled.

Harry was standing in his mirror trying to tame his wild black hair, while Ron begrudgingly laid in his bed watching.

"Hope you guys have fun tonight." Ron said, the jealously seething through his teeth.

"Tell Lavender to stay off my bed." Harry chuckled as he ran from the room answering Hermione's call.

Sprinting to the bottom of the stairs, Hermione rushed him pulling at his shirt, and completely redoing it for him.

"Sometimes you are hopeless, Harry." She said as she fingered his hair into place.

"There are smudges on your glasses." She said yanking them off his face and cleaning them with her handkerchief.

"She'll be down any minute. Did you get her anything?"

"What? Was I supposed to?"

"Harry, really…. You are so lucky I know you so well." Hermione said as she pulled a beautiful corsage from her handbag.

"Get that dumb look off of your face." Hermione demanded.

Within moments Harry's ears ceased from hearing as he watched his date click her heels at the top of the steps. His breath was taken away by her presence. Lia took slow steps down the stairs, and beamed the entire way down. Harry's mouth hung slightly open as he watched her descend.

"What's that look for, Harry?" Lia giggled.

"You're….."

Harry felt a nudge in his back.

"Beautiful. Absolutely stunning." Harry said as he reached for her hand.

With much more ease than anticipated, the corsage slipped over her knuckles and matched her light blue knee-length dress perfectly.

"Hermione, you look absolutely gorgeous." Lia smiled in her direction.

"Is Jim going to be here soon?" She asked.

"I am actually meeting Jim at the party, I don't want Ron to curse him or anything." She laughed.

The three simultaneously exited; all overly excited to be apart of something that didn't involve danger or detention. The halls were quiet, usually on Monday nights students were holed up studying, or practicing, but it was obvious that Slughorn wanted to parade his Slug's throughout Hogwarts halls. Harry noticed some kids did peek around to see what the select few were wearing to the party, because it wasn't a secret that it was going on. The door was wide open into Slughorn's office, and Harry could hear the jazzy music escaping through the bright light casted on the floor. The three walked through the threshold, and were astounded at the transformation of Slughorn's usual drab office. There were beautiful olive and golden drapes hung about, and ornate statues placed about. The three seemed to be latecomers, and the room was already packed with students and professors alike. Hermione took her leave, seeing Jim hugging the side of Slughorn's giant fireplace in the middle of the room. For the moment, everyone was standing around mingling, and Slughorn didn't waste a minute to interject on Harry's moment of peace.

"Ahhhh, Harry! I see you brought the lovely Lia, what a couple you make. The boy who lived and the brightest American witch the world has seen!"

"So glad to see your faces here. I promised some old friends they could have a few minutes with the each of you. Harry there, over there is Fingus Darth. He is an old friend that works in the Ministry, Administrative Registration Department, been wanting to hear a bit more about your fourth year… always been a fan of the Triwizard Tournament. And Lia, my dear girl, if you wouldn't mind coming with me, I've got a woman by the name of Attica, she is a potioneer. She was utterly intrigued at the story where you and Potter went head to head with the…."

Harry couldn't hear the end of the sentence as he watched Slughorn drag his girlfriend into a group a white haired wizards and witches. The wizard that Slughorn had pointed started to scan the room for Harry, which he quickly escaped into a corner far from any of the non-student wizards.

"Harry!" He heard a familiar voice.

Turning, he saw Neville and was pleasantly surprised. Neville wore a white dress shirt, buttoned all the way to the top and held a nice golden platter with fluke glasses filled halfway.

"Would you like a drink, Harry?" Neville offered.

"Actually Neville, could you just stand right there. You're a bit taller than me, and so therefore no one on the other side of you can see me."

"Well, sure Harry…. but why?"

"I would rather not have to talk about the Triwizard Tournament tonight." Harry smiled.

"Well of course….. where's Lia?" Neville looked behind his shoulder.

"Slughorn dragged her off… literally."

"Well, don't worry Harry. The dancing will start soon. Luna is over there serving appetizers, I am going to try and sneak in a dance with her."

"You should do that, Neville. What's in the glasses anyway?"

"Dunno. I just serve it, I reckon it tastes gross."

Harry didn't chance it and took Neville's word for it. Harry caught the glimpse of Lia's smile as she stood on the far end of the circle, facing Harry while she was being questioned. Her smile shone so bright as it hid behind her haughty laughs. Her hair twinkled just right under the soft yellow lights, which made her porcelain skin just glow under the luminescence. Harry couldn't pull his attention away from her, she was utterly stunning.

The jazz music loudened and one of the gray haired witches took the opportunity to yank Harry from Neville's cover and start slow dancing with him. Harry could see as he was spinning in circles, Lia's welcoming face grinning back at him from the sidelines. The moment was more fun than Harry could imagine and soon Lia, Harry, Neville and anyone else he could think of was being rotated between the older crowd of witches and wizards. His belly began to hurt, and his cheeks became sore from laughing and smiling so frequently. Finally, Harry felt an arm firmly grasp him before he was tossed into McGonagall's arms, and to his surprise it was Lia. He grabbed her tightly and rested his forehead against hers and let out a few chuckles before settling down. Behind Lia he could see Neville and Luna slow dancing in a sort of strange manner, but couldn't help but being happy for them. The moment caught him, their bodies perfectly syncing to the slow, but still catchy music in the background. It was finally the moment that Harry could be sure about that he would think of anytime he tried to conjure a patronus; there was no moment better than this.

After a break in the music, which seemed like an entire lifetime to Harry, Lia stepped off behind a gathering of drapes to a nice drafty balcony. She leaned over the black iron railing and stared up at the cloud-covered moon, while her breath made tiny puff clouds as she breathed out. Harry gravitated toward her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Lia lifted herself from the railing and pulled a slight separation between them so she had enough room to turn her body and look at Harry face on. Harry could see the look in her eyes, a look that felt like a place that he never wanted to leave. Harry knew he was young, but the events that happened in his life had already aged him to a point where he could differentiate between school crushes and the real deal. This was it: he was absolutely sure that he loved her.

"Lia… I-"

"Harry… shhhh. This moment is perfect." She smiled as she bit her bottom lip.

"I have to say this." He gave her a side smile.

"Okay, out with it then."

"Lia, I love you."

There was a lapse of dialect. Lia took the moment to study Harry's face, leaning against his two arms wrapped around the small of her back. Harry's lungs began to tighten; was this not the right time?

"Harry, I know." Lia smiled back.

"Your eyes have _always_ given you away, Harry."


	8. Chapter 8

Ron moseyed around in the morning stale air as Harry rubbed the tiredness away from his lids. Harry could barely see, but Ron was picking up his sweaters off the floor and tossing them into a bag on the end of his bed.

"Ron, are you packing already? Don't we usually leave for Christmas on the weekend?"

"Well yeah, but I think I might want to leave early. Lavender is driving me bonkers, and I was sure you probably wanted to stay later knowing that Lia was staying here over the holidays." Ron seemed disheartened.

"No Ron, I want to leave with you. You really think I am going to let you take the train all by yourself?"

"I just figured. It might not be a bad idea seeing as that Snape's boiling at you anyway. What exactly did you do?"

Harry sat up, the room much more clear to him now, "Lia and I left Slughorn's last night and took the way past the dungeons, because, you know, less people-"

"Wow Harry, turned into a real lion at heart, yeah?"

"Shut up, Ron. Anyway, Lia and I are rounding the corner and we hear some yelling. Next think I know Snape has Malfoy against the wall by his throat. He didn't see us right away, but Malfoy kept going on about how he didn't need any help and how Snape needed to keep his nose out of things because 'he trusted me with this, and me alone.'"

"Sounds sketchy."

"Seriously sketchy. If I hadn't already been convinced Malfoy was a Death Eater, this just solidifies that."

"Harry, I think we all know that. Other people just need convincing."

"I think you are right though, Snape looked more pissed than anything when he saw us coming down that hallway."

Ron shifted his eyes back and forth, sticking his nose far up into the air.

"I thought I smelled muffins down in the common area, lets go down there quick."

Harry and Ron left their dorm and ventured to the common area where Ginny, Hermione, Lia and Neville were decorating the walls with lights and ornaments. Behold, Ron's nose hadn't deceived him, there were two plates of perfect golden muffins hiding behind a large puff of silver garland. Without delay, both hands of Ron's were filled with muffins while Harry used his wand to help Lia as she balanced poorly on the edge of the couch.

"No magic, Harry! Do it the muggle way!" She laughed at him.

"The muggle way takes so much longer." Harry helped Lia off of the couch.

"Lia told me all about what Snape and Malfoy were doing last night. Better be glad that Molly invited Lia along for Christmas too." Ginny said.

"She wha-"

"That was going to be a surprise to you, Harry. But of course, now it's ruined." Ron said with a palm full of muffin in his mouth.

"Get off it, Ron. Mum wrote to me to make sure that I told Lia because she knew that you would forget." Ginny yelled at him.

"How does Molly even know about Lia?" Harry asked the room.

"I've been writing her, Harry. She asks about you…" Ron said.

"Oh, … excellent! Lia, you'll love Christmas at The Burrow-"

"Harry, I haven't packed anything yet." Lia interjected.

"Oh?"

"I feel like I am imposing… you know. I think I'll just stay here. A lot of the Americans are flying back with Fink, but I haven't seen my uncle in so long, it's just not worth it. I wouldn't mind staying here with Dumbledore, really."

"Stop being so modest, mum would be upset if you didn't come. You can leave with Hermione and me on the train. She won't be coming to the Burrow, but we can be company together." Ginny demanded.

"Wonderful, it's settled. Ron and I will leave tomorrow afternoon, and you guys will leave…"

"Friday. It's when the bulk of students are leaving; it'll just be easiest. " Hermione answered.

Harry felt a lot of nerves jumping around in his stomach for Ron's family to meet Lia. He hadn't ever been able to do something like bring a girlfriend home to meet his family, so this was a big thing for him.

Almost immediately Harry retreated back into the dorm to gather some of his things to get ready for their departure tomorrow.

"Harry, did you hear Ginny say that Hermione won't be coming for Christmas this year… Weird yeah?"

"What did you expect, Ron? She can barely stand to be in the same room as you."

"Well yeah, but its my family too. A bit rude." Ron scoffed as he tossed a pair of socks on the top of his sweaters.

* * *

Next thing to boys knew it was already high noon and the Hogwarts Express was blowing it's horn more ready for them than they were for it. A few more students boarded the train; very little students left this early for Holiday, so it was a quiet train ride back to the Burrow. Ron spent a lot of time complaining about Lavender, but all Harry could think about was getting to the Burrow to have some of Molly's famous shepherd's pie.

The walk over the small hill's to the Burrow took longer than Harry had anticipated, especially when he could recognize a familiar ragged face from the front lawn in the kitchen window. Remus was sipping on a tiny chipped cup of something before he realized that Harry and Ron were trouncing through the front door.

At first, Lupin was the only person around and helped Harry and Ron with their bags into the kitchen. Soon a brigade of feet came pounding down the stairs and Molly's welcoming wail startled the boys.

"Oh Harry, my dear boy so good to see you!" She nearly yelled as she pulled Harry in for a hug.

She quickly hugged Ron and then was soon smiling past Ron seeing that Bill and his fiancé Fleur had also just arrived.

"Look at the timing!" Molly exclaimed yanking Bill in for a hug.

"Freddie, George, make room for you brother please. Fleur, you can stay with Ginny and Lia when they get here, and Harry and Ron, you guys get the attic, Remus, you can have Bill's old room…. And well, everyone get's a bed."

She disappeared back up the staircase, where Fleur, Bill and the twins also retreated back into their rooms.

"Harry, Ron, how wonderful to get to see you two and good terms." Remus raised his glass.

"Remus, we've got some things to talk about." Harry urged.

"Ah, Harry, the bad can wait. Let's not weigh our heads down with such thoughts at this hour. I hear the two of you have got girlfriends, does that make me feel old. I'll be lucky enough to meet the lady as of Friday, is that right Harry?"

"Yeah, she'll be staying Friday thru Sunday, then staying with Hermione's family for the rest of Holiday."

"Wonderful. And Ron, you are seeing Miss Lavender Brown…" Remus trailed off.

"Can't wait until Friday. I hear she is brilliant, Harry. Someone that actually rivals Miss Granger in her talents. To be honest, I didn't know that was possible." Remus chuckled.

"Us either." Ron rolled his eyes.

"At first I thought that Hermione would hate her, but the two really hit it off, nearly inseparable." Ron commented again.

"And Miss Granger….. it's not a likely sight to see her apart from you two. Where is she?"

"Well, lets just say that her and Ron aren't exactly on the best of terms right now." Harry answered.

"Ah yes. Young hearts, what a dangerous, but wonderful thing." Remus sipped again on his glass."

"But, your minds _and _hearts need rest. You two head up to bed now. We can continue talking in the morning."

Ron and Harry ascended up to the attic where the same beds they always slept in were left undisturbed and tucked in neatly for their disruption. The boys took out their evening pajamas and dove in under the knitted quilts on their beds.

"Ron, where's Percy?" Harry asked noticing his absence.

"Mum's been pretty upset lately. Percy hasn't really spoken to anyone. Charlie has heard a bit from him, but he's distant." Ron admitted.

"That's a shame."

"Yeah."  
Harry could feel the air become flat and took it as a cue to roll over and call it a night. It was must easier for him to let sleep take over his mind here, surrounded by family than in his dorm.

* * *

Harry and Ron were woken up by the most delicious smell lingering from the kitchen. Their noses guided them right to the dining room table, where Remus, Arthur and Bill were already sitting comfortable with cups underneath their fingers.

"Look at all of you men! One whiff of sizzling bacon and you gather around like scavengers!" Molly yelled as she used her wand to stir pots across the kitchen.

"Oh Mol, all your cooking turns me into a scavenger. That's why my belt is getting so tight." Arthur smiled at his wife.

"Harry, news is that the express dropped off Lia and Ginny only a half hour ago. Fleur is most likely bringing them back now." Remus smiled at Harry.

Which of course in a chain reaction shocked butterflies throughout Harry's body. It had only been a few days, but Harry longed for the smell of her sweet skin next to him again. The twins also had started hovering, nearly salivating in sight of the sizzling pots and pans. Ron grabbed a handful of biscuits and sat next to Bill while they waited for the large breakfast to be done. Molly was just finishing plating eggs when the front door opened and Fleur led the way for everyone to enter.

Molly squealed "Ginny! Oh my dear Gin, come here!"

Ginny was squished against her mother for a few moments until Lia stole Molly's attention. Molly relinquished Ginny and flattened her apron, gesturing out her tiny hand in Lia's direction.

"You must be Ophelia! Well come on in dear! I hope you are hungry!" Molly snatched Lia's jacket from her arms and hung it among the others.

"Thank you, Molly. I've heard so much about your cooking, I've been saving my appetite."

Molly tended back to her final touches leaving Lia standing in the opening of the hallway. The minute their eyes connected, Harry couldn't control himself. A burst of energy propelled his body toward her, and his arms pulled her in so tightly that she dropped her bag.

"Lia, I missed you." Harry whispered in her ear.

"Harry, you're nearly choking me." She laughed.

She fixed a couple of unruly strands of hair hanging over his glasses then quickly recognized an eerie silence as the entire room had their eyes focused on her. The two separated quickly and Harry brought her to the table, all faces eager to meet this mysterious woman that stole Harry's heart.

"Remus, Arthur, Bill, Fred, George… this is Ophelia Bloom." Harry gestured.

"Please, call me Lia." She shook each of their hands.

"I basically had to beg to let me call you Lia." Harry smiled.

"You still should be begging me." She returned the grin.

"So Miss Lia, as I can hear in your accent, you are American! That's a lovely thing. It is true that muggles in America all sit on their lawns with machine guns and drive trucks the size of houses?" Arthur asked.

"Arthur that's a rude question!" Molly yelled.

"We read an article in the Daily Prophet about it!" He replied.

"No, no, it's alright. Arthur you can ask me any questions about American Muggles, it won't offend me. And, that is partially true, but I think the Prophet added in a bit too many dramatics. America is just very strong on their gun policy and well; yes some Americans like to drive overly large trucks. " She smiled.

"Absolutely fascinating. Really." Arthur bewildered.

"Sorry Lia, dad is in the department of Muggle Studies in the ministry, this kind of stuff is right up his alley." Ron apologized.

"No need for apologies. Please ask away." She smiled right at Arthur.

Molly floated the plates of food on silver platters right to the center of the table, where no one hesitated in digging in. Bits of bacon flew mid air as the men started to tear into the copious amounts of breakfast food.

"So Harry, what did you have to talk to me about last night?" Remus casually asked while cutting a benedict.

"Oh, yeah. _That_. I sort of caught Malfoy admitting his involvement with the Death Eaters; Him and Snape were back in the hallways arguing, Snape's hand against his throat."

"It's pretty obvious that the Malfoy boy is involved." Arthur interjected.

"Draco is a sweet boy." Lia urged.

The table went silent. There were many words to describe Draco Malfoy and sweet was definitely not on that list.

"And you know this how, Miss Ophelia?" Lupin pressed.

"Lia tutors him two to three times a week." Harry added, disheartened.

"Look, I am not doubting that Draco is involved. Every time I look into his eyes there is a deep embedment of fear. He is just a boy, raised in a family of Death Eaters, to only know the way of being an ally with the Dark Lord. He needs guidance." She didn't even skip a beat shoving a piece of bacon into her mouth.

"Keep an eye on him you three." Remus directed toward Lia, Harry and Ron.

Time filled their mouths with food instead of words, which they ate in silence for the remainder of Molly's wonderful pre-Christmas breakfast. Lia, Ginny, Fleur and Molly cleaned up the kitchen while the men tidied up the dining area. Molly couldn't stop but taking a few seconds out of task to notice how much Lia fit in. She laughed with Ginny as they talked about school, and Fleur and Lia had more than French Witch Fashion to gush about.

"Lia, dear you'll be staying for Christmas day right?" Molly asked while rinsing a plate.

"As long as it is okay, I would love to Molly. I was planning on leaving the morning after Christmas and staying with Hermione. She's promised to take me on a London excursion and show me the London New Year celebration."

"Oh of course dear, I was going to insist you stay for Christmas." Molly smiled.

After the morning cleaning had been done, everyone fixed a cup of chocolate and cozied around the blazing fire that Arthur had created in the large askew fireplace. A loud knock disturbed the peace and the entire room buzzed as they heard Molly screech when she opened the door. Harry and Ron dare not budge, but Arthur and Remus quickly leaped from their spots on couches to aide Molly. The Minister of Magic made his way into the threshold of the living room, and Percy hung behind him like a sour shadow. Percy ignored his mother's plights to try and snuggle him with her Christmas Eve cheer, but his amusement quickly grew cold. Rufus Scrimgeour wanted nothing to do with family quarrels, but could only find his time being occupied with scooping Harry up from his cozy spot on the couch. Scrimgeour tried his hardest to convince Harry to use his knowledge to be some sort of intern for the Ministry, but Harry was hard to convince after the year the Ministry put him through in the past. Harry also wasn't entertained by the nature of his request seeing as that it was his holiday and the last thing he wanted to do was be bothered with political business. In the end, Harry turned him away and without even a hug goodbye, Rufus and Percy were stomping back up the tiny pebble path away from the Burrow. Molly was left disheartened for the rest of the day, sort of draining the Christmas spirit from the rest of the crowd.

* * *

It was nearly midnight, and the entire party was beginning to unwind, most everyone was already cuddled in bed, but Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lia were still stirring in the night.

"Ron, you have to admit at how happy I am." Ginny lightly punched Ron on the arm.

"Yeah, I suppose I overacted a bit. But you're my sister, it's my job to protect you." Ron pleaded.

"Ron, with the way things are going, I think you are gunna be the one who needs protection. You might want to take this time away from Hermione to think of how you are going to apologize to her. She's pissed."

The room went quiet and nothing but the crackle of smoldering wood filled the air. Gin was too busy reading a folder piece of parchment while Ron sort of stared off into the distance with a glazed look over his eyes.

"Harry you mind if we take a walk?" Lia asked.

"Sure. Absolutely!" Harry leaped from the couch in attempt to escape the awkwardness.

The two threw scarves over their necks and slipped their feet into boots and escaped into the bitter air. There was only a dusting of snow, making their trek through the grass much easier than expected. Their breath made clouds of white around their mouths as they decided to stop on a patch of rock and grass just out of sight of the Burrow.

"Harry, I've been meaning to talk to you."

The mere use of this sentence brought certain nausea into Harry's stomach.

"I just, I haven't been able to sleep at night recently thinking about it, and I have to get it off my chest."

"Okay, shoot."

"I am sorry for everything that has happened to you."

"For wha-"

"Let me finish. I am sorry that your Uncle was murdered not even a year ago. I am sorry that your parents were taken from you. I am sorry that throughout your entire life you have faced things that 100 wizards combined couldn't fathom to think about. I am mostly sorry that I treated you like such shit when I got here. It crawls under my skin when I think of the way I talked to you. I just came here with such a chip on my shoulder not understanding why a boy who suffered like me was idolized. I was jealous. I can never take back what I did to you, and I can't ever forgive myself for that."

"Lia, even though you are beautiful, wonderful and absolutely brilliant, I am not sure if we would be where we are today if you hadn't been the way you were. I literally made it my personal goal to try and figure out why you hated me. And yeah, I am angry, I am angry that, even though I love the Weasley's, I am spending Christmas with Molly and Arthur instead of James and Lily. Of course I am angry that I finally had a glimpse of happiness when Sirius came into my life, that for once, Harry Potter could have a place to call home. But even with battling with constantly being angry, it all seems okay when I am with you."

"Oh Harry." She sighed while kissing his open mouth.

"This will all seem so funny when we are 30 looking back on when you nearly threw me out of your dorm. "

The words stuck like honey against Harry's lips immediately after they left. This was the first time Harry imagined the future other than in terms of defeating Lord Voldemort. In his head he clearly saw Lia holding his hand, with graceful wrinkles on her face as they walked their children into Olivander's for the first time. It was so easy for him to imagine her head against his chest every single night for the rest of his life and for once, the future looked bright, and brought serenity instead of panic and fear.

* * *

**A.N. I am posting these chapters quite fast, but toward the end I am going to slow down quite a bit! Just stick with me, this is my first story posted on the site. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

The bells jingled as the Weasley's sang their morning Christmas tunes while Molly passed out brightly colored parcels around the room. She danced with a cup of eggnog in her hand, balancing that and red package she tossed in Ron's direction. Lia beamed watching Molly's wonderful attitude toward the holiday, for since she was a girl, her uncle did nothing more than watch reruns of famous Christmas shows on the television. Harry's Christmas pile was large, only barely beating Lia's but not large enough to beat Ron's. There were a few packages from Lavender that smothered those from his parents, which were buried down beneath them. Harry noticed the same gaudy wrapped gifts from Molly and Arthur but also saw a lilac colored box underneath it. Flamboyant paper stared to pile in the middle of the group, Harry smiled as he watched Lia hold a traditional Molly Weasley knitted sweater with an O stitched over the left chest. Ron looked disgusted as he held up a garish gold necklace from Lavender, where he didn't waste time to dispose of it. Harry was excited for Lia to open her gift; He took a lot of thought trying to pinpoint the thing she would love the most the week prior to leaving for the Burrow. The box in her hand was small, but Lia didn't turn her nose to it for a second. She pulled a beautiful silver chain from the box and held it only a few inches from her face. She saw a tiny wolf paw dangling from the chain, and focusing clearer on it, there was a tiny black lightening bolt etched into the center of it.

"Harry, its beautiful!" She threw a free arm around his neck.

She immediately gestured for Harry to attach it around her neck, where it seemed to glitter ten times as bright.

"Thanks Lia!" Ron yelled across the room with a new Quidditch hat on.

"That's my old hat, Ron. Treat it nicely." She smiled.

Harry knew that it was his time to open his gift from Lia, seeing as that Molly was holding a fashionable new wallet, and Arthur had a singing toy Uncle Sam doll. Ginny was holding a new shirt, the twins had a slew of American joke novelties and Bill and Fleur shared a lovely American bottle of champagne.

"Harry, it's not much. But, I hope you like it." She gestured toward the box.

Harry carefully ripped the paper and revealed something that almost immediately brought him to tears. Sitting on top was a frame and an original moving picture of James, Sirius and Lily smiling in front of Hogwarts where they looked no older than 16.

"Where did you…."

"I have my ways Harry, and Dumbledore didn't mind helping. " She kissed him on the cheek.

Underneath the frame was an off-white sheet of paper, a graphite sketch of a stag resting its head on top of that of a wolf was just the perfect icing on the cake.

"I love it. I love it all, Lia. Thank you."

Harry spent most of the day staring at the frame of his parents and godfather laughing in front of the same doors he walked through everyday. As the night wound down, Harry helped Lia remove all of her things from her special purple bag so she was able to re-gift the item to Hermione. The two wrapped up the bag in a tidy pink parcel, and Harry was able to see that now Lia had no bag or wallet and her things were in a giant mess on Ginny's bed.

"You really did just give everything of yours away today, didn't you?"

"Well, I've been trying to save money for gifts over Christmas, but unfortunately after buying my dress for Slughorn's Christmas party I wiped out my savings. It doesn't matter though, I've got a backpack I can put everything in." She grinned at him.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Harry its Christmas. The Weasley's took me in on their Holiday. I wish I could give them more. Luckily, I have some extra American candies I can give to the Grangers, and I think Hermione will like this bag. She can put every book she ever owned in it and bring it with her anywhere. " Lia chuckled.

"My uncle sent me a little bit of money in a card for a Christmas gift, so I will use that to buy a new purse and wallet. No big deal."

"You're something else, Lia. Like no one I've ever met." Harry approached her, planting a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Gin is gone, yeah?" Harry asked.

"She left for Dean's only a few minutes ago. I get the room to myself tonight."

"We could put it to use." Harry kissed the side of her neck.

"Harry, there are literally ears everywhere. I wouldn't be shocked if the twins were listening to us right now."

"True. I just know you're leaving in the morning, and I am going to miss you."

"Very sweet, but the most you're gunna get from me is a PG-13 make out session in the Weasley household."

"Sold."

Morning came too soon, and Harry was dragging Lia's bag through the gravel walkway, up to the spot that she was going to be waiting for Hermione. Remus walked a few meters behind them, clearly allowing their space to not be invaded for their time remaining together. No sooner was Hermione standing straight in front of them holding a strange looking baton in between her fingers.

"Harry! Lia!" She yelped, throwing an arm around each of them.

"Happy late Christmas, guys!" She smiled.

"Ah Miss Granger, how lovely to see you this morning." Remus nodded in her direction.

"Always a pleasure, Remus." She smiled back.

She tossed over a large black sac in Harry's direction, looking growingly uneasy as she watched Ron move about in the Burrow.

"You can pass those out Harry. Mum and Dad are waiting for us for a bit of breakfast, so we can't take too long."

Peering over Harry's shoulder, the grip on her strange metal stick tightened.

"Okay Harry, I will see you back at Hogwarts in a few days. Remus, I didn't see you yesterday and I had a gift for you. I smelled the potion Snape made you for your _problem…_and well, it smells like cat pee. So, I concocted a recipe of my own. It'll do the trick, just taste much more like cherries. I made you a four-month supply, that's as long as it will stay fresh. I'll make you more in the spring time." She smiled and handed over an amber colored box.

Lia apprehended her backpack from Harry in exchange for a drawn out hug. Harry didn't want to let her go and miss the smell of her sweet floral scented hair, even if only it was for a few days. Lia grabbed the close end of the baton, and without more than a second to spare, Hermione and Lia were sucked into another dimension by the portkey she brought along with her. Harry and Lupin sauntered back into the warm embrace of the Burrow and spent the rest of the afternoon sipping coffee with Ron and Arthur. Harry enjoyed having time of just rest with the men of the house. It brought him back to the times when the Order was strong and when Sirius was still alive. Remus reminded Harry of a raggedy version of Sirius, and, from what he heard, a much more laid back version of his father.

The last few days went fast at the Burrow, Harry barely even noticed when New Year's Eve came and went. The twins had an exceptional set of firework displays they had just in store for the turning of the year. The night sky exploded with colors and flames, and the twins especially concocted a firework that ran across the sky like a giant lion. Harry sat with Ron and Ginny on a plush homemade quilt and smiled while sipping on Lima Lush that Arthur was able to get from a Muggle market. This time was bittersweet for Harry because he was happy; but a larger part of him was greener than the bubbly beverage he was drinking. He couldn't stop imagining Lia beautifully dressed walking around the streets of London with Hermione. Harry wanted to be the first to kiss Lia as the clock struck 12, but all he could do was wrap his lips around a plastic cup.

"Happy New Year." Ginny whispered across the blanket to her brother and Harry.

She scooted herself up to the front of the blanket right next to Harry, leaving Ron in the back by himself.

"Cheer up, Harry."

"I'm good, Gin. Thanks."

"Don't lie to me, Harry. I know you. You get a bloody crinkle in your forehead when your tea gets cold." She smiled.

"You're right. When she's away from me, I get reminded that I might have to do this for longer than a few days when she goes back for her seventh year in America. I mean, she's already going to be student teaching… who knows when she will ever come back."

"Harry, don't you think that she's thought of that? Don't you think that she has been rethinking her future?" Ginny sassed at him.

"Well, I am not really sure. We don't really talk about the future. Do you know something?"

"I can't ruin the surprise, Harry. She had another Christmas gift for you when the two of you got back to Hogwarts."

"Ginny, you cant just say that."

"I can't ruin it, Harry. But just keep in mind that all of her mornings with Dumbledore weren't just spent practicing her Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she isn't student teaching at Hogwarts with Snape for no reason."

Harry couldn't quite pinpoint what Ginny was meaning with her elusive explanation, and it certainly didn't calm his nerves about what he was worried about only a half year off. The fireworks lit up the sky, but still left Harry in the dark.

Holiday had passed and Harry and Ron found themselves waiting back in the same train car with their large trunks sitting atop of them. The train stood still, Harry and Ron had Remus drop them off early to avoid the usually Molly break down every time they leave for the second half of the year. Students started pouring through every opening and soon almost every train car was full. The whistle blew once and Harry and Ron knew that soon that they would be jolted forward and starting their journey. Laughing could be heard down the entire train car, so loud that it sounded almost hysterical. Hermione and Lia tumbled through the same train car that Harry and Ron were sitting in; Hermione took one look at Ron turned to escape, but Lia grabbed her wrist and yanked her down.

"Oh stop, sit down." Lia scolded.

Harry and Ron saw across from them two girls, hair disheveled, lips cracked with a half smile and so much to tell behind their eyes.

"I take it you two had a nice New Year last night." Harry stated, quite bitterly.

"It was wonderful. London is a beautiful city, I could see myself there, Harry. I absolutely love it."

"She loved it so much that we stayed out until 5 this morning. Nearly ran home, packed our bags and had to jump on the train before it started moving. "Hermione chuckled.

Harry noticed something different about Lia, something that glinted in the morning sun on her nose.

"Lia, you pierced your nose last night?" Harry asked.

"Well….. it just kind of happened. Mione and I were walking around at around 3 last night, still pretty amped up from the crazy party on London streets and there was a tattoo shop open offering body piercings for only $10. Hermione was a little…. Well-"

"Drunk." Ron interjected, "I can smell the whiskey on her from here."

"Well, yeah, sure. She was drunk, and said that we should both go in, and that her parents gave her money for the night. Here we are, pierced and hung over."

"Lia you got drunk last night? You know we aren't allowed to drink, we are underage." Harry spat.

"Lighten up Harry. We were out and we were having fun. There was a guy who fancied Hermione and kept on grabbing us drinks from the bar down the street. It was only a few, but you know that we don't drink, so by drink three we were feeling a bit bubbly."

"You're lucky you're okay. You could've been hurt last night."

"Harry, Lia and I are the two best witches in Hogwarts, I think we can handle being tipsy on the streets of London."

"You're still only 16!"

"Stop being a jealous cow, Harry!" Hermione yelled.

Harry slumped back in his chair, very taken back by the way Hermione had spoken to him.

"Sorry Harry, I didn't mean that. I just have a killer headache, and my bellybutton is so sore from this damn piercing. You're right; we probably shouldn't have been drinking. I guess I have been a little off the rails lately. But I promise, Lia was completely fine. I was the one who was stumbling around the streets. If it wasn't for her I probably would be sleeping in an alley somewhere by Big Ben. But she was good, really good. Bragged about you all night to be honest."

"Hermione was hitting it off quite nicely with a French boy until she handed him a dried frog leg out of her bag last night instead of a pen to write down his number."

They could hear Ron squirm in his seat.

"No matter, we left unharmed… for the most part…. And we had a blast." Hermione smiled.

The train jolted, and Lia and Hermione almost instantaneously grabbed their foreheads from pain. Lia snaked in next to Harry causing Ron to become so uncomfortable he crossed the car and sat as far away from Hermione as possible. The trolley lady came around with her cart and Harry ordered the girls pasties knowing that their stomachs needed the settling. Luckily, she had tea as well on her cart, and the two girls nibbled and sipped in between giggling as they whispered about their evening. Within twenty minutes of consuming the morning snacks, the girl's eyelids began to sink and Lia's head easily fit on Harry's shoulder and began to nap. Hermione's head continued to bob until her head fell against the back of the train car wall. Before the boys knew it, Hermione's head slid right on to Ron's shoulder while she was in her slumber. Ron gulped and scoffed at the grin Harry shot him from across the car. Ron prayed silently in his head that Lavender wasn't going to come by his car and see Hermione on his chest. In Ron's case, it wasn't Lavender that passed by and saw them, it was Parvati, and Ron was sure that she was going to run back and let Lavender have it. But to his surprise, no storm came his way.

When the train stopped, the boys dragged Hermione and Lia's bags alongside their own so they could catch the first set of thestrals and get back to the castle. Luckily, Ron was able to avoid Lavender again by having Harry hang behind and catch the absolute last carriage going to the castle.

"Quit smiling like that at me, Harry." Ron spat at him, ducking behind his left shoulder.

"I am not doing anything." Harry smirked back at him.

"I've got to get this smell of whiskey and …. books off of me when we get back." Ron said, watching Hermione disappear off into the horizon.

Most students were already settled in their dorms by the time Harry and Ron began dragging the excess luggage through to common room opening. Their muscles ached from the lack of muscle strength compared to the weight of the holiday gear. Harry watched as Ron's eyes widened; his back shot straight up and his neck elongated staring up toward the girl's dorm.

"Did you hear that?" Ron interjected the silence.

"Hear what?" Harry said, still unable to hear any noise over the usual Gryffindor fire.

"Hermione…. it sounded like she screamed." Ron said standing on his feet now.

The two calmly climbed the small flight of stairs, only to hear that Hermione was making squeaking noises from the open dorm door. Hermione was horrified with her hands covering her mouth, gazing into the dark corner of the room that belonged to Lia. Ron pushed the door completely open, revealing Lia standing with her back toward them staring at a demolished room. The baby blue sheets on her bed were ripped and pillow feathers were dispersed throughout the room as if it had rained them. A few of Lia's best clothes were ripped, along with a notebook of hers had been shredded to bits. The most shocking feature was the bright red paint smeared across her walls that read "_Potter Whore_."

"Happy New Year, guys." Lia dismayed with a few pieces of shredded paper in her fingers.

The trio immediately began to pick up the ruins of Lia's belongings, all equally shocked at the horror of what was in front of them. Lia began to scrub the wall above her bed, astonishingly keeping more of a level head that one would expect.

"Why would anyone do this?" Hermione asked, trying to charm back together one of Lia's notebooks.

"Who would do this is the better question." Ron asked while he crawled around on the floor.

"It could be anyone." Lia admitted with her hands now stained with red paint.

"What?" Harry questioned.

"It could be a Wolfpaw, a Gryffindor, a Slytherin, a Crow, literally anyone. I wouldn't be shocked if it was someone from my own school. I've been getting random nasty notes and pranks since I got here, and I definitely wasn't Eaglecrest's most loved student."

"Nasty notes?" Ron inquired.

"The Eaglecrest girls hate me because I'm dating Harry. The Slytherins despise me for tutoring Draco. I literally have no other friends besides the crowd you guys hang out with."

"That Wolfpaw boy Matt told me you weren't so bad." Harry exclaimed.

"Matt's a nice kid, and we've always gotten along but I am sure that if you asked any other Eagle they would have a different view."

"Why?" Ron asked, now sitting on Hermione's bed trying to figure out what ripped article of clothing he had in his hands.

"The only time I could ever relate to an Eagle was at Quidditch practice when the older kids would have some time to chat with me. My uncle's home was built in the mountains, with only one bedroom and a tube TV that had 3 channels. When other kids were playing hopscotch, I was studying my mother's herbology books. My only source of an outlet was studying my mom's tiny library that was left behind when she was murdered. By the time I even landed in Eaglecrest I was already able brew many potions and a handful of charms."

She hopped down from the bedposts, leaving behind a pink stained wall but no remnants of the hurtful handwritten words.

"It was hard for me to make friends my own age, because most of them just drilled me to help them pass their exams. Fink has really been my only friend, as sad as that seems. But ever since I can remember, I've been put down and berated for taking my studies maybe just a bit too seriously, and being just a little too poor."

"The years have taught me that people will hate you no matter what you do. The only thing I can do is improve myself and know that one day it'll get better and the sun will shine again."

Lia wrapped her hands fragments of a tiny jewelry box, opening her mouth to speak, "Luckily this was just my walls, and not my body. I've had to cover up plenty of black eyes and learned many of charms to fix my hair." Lia gave a pathetic side smile.

Hermione was able to mend most of the damage while Harry and Ron used brute force and a small amount of spells to completely remove any residue of red paint of the walls. Hours passed that night while Harry turned in his bed thinking about when his name was tossed in the goblet and how it tore him apart inside the entire year while the majority of his peers hated him. Granted, nowadays it wasn't a walk in the park, especially with the growing tension in Slytherin as dark days approached, but at least Harry caught a tiny breath of fresh air.


	10. Chapter 10

Harry caught wind of a modest invitation from Dumbledore requesting for Harry's presence mid-afternoon on the Tuesday after the Holiday return. Harry knew it wasn't going to be anything of a formal nature, so he had no problem rolling out of bed and heading down the hallways to meet with his headmaster.

Dumbledore was standing stoically, petting Fawkes on his head clearly waiting for Harry to enter through his cement staircase.

"Ah Harry! How lovely to see you! How was your holiday?"

"It was really nice." Harry groggily answered.

"I hope you enjoyed your gift from Miss Bloom." He stepped toward Harry.

"I loved it." Harry smiled to himself.

"I have a feeling you haven't called me here to discuss holiday though."

"No unfortunately not, Harry. I am afraid it is back to darker times. Please join me."

The two dipped their heads into the pensive and Harry was surprised that every time his face fell underneath the surface, the more he learned that Tom Riddle was not so far away from the same sixth year Harry Potter. This lesson showed of how the Death Eaters arose, and how they started off almost as simple as Dumbledore's Army did, but with darker intentions.

Dumbledore then showed Harry another memory, one that had been tampered with whereas he asked Harry to use his repertoire with Slughorn to reveal the true incident. Dumbledore knew that Slughorn had fudged out the real portion of what Tom Riddle had said to him in his office that day, but Harry was the only one who had a chance to figure it out. The same cool rush Harry felt as his face lifted from the airy water came much longer than expected, whereas he stood face to face with his mentor.

"Harry, you must find it in your time to get the true memory back. This may be a very crucial key to the demise of Voldemort."

"Now that holiday is over, the Slug Club parties will die down and I will have more time to get him alone."

"Fantastic Harry. I am counting on you."

"Professor, Ginny was telling me about Lia having news about Hog-"

"Harry, I am much to old to be interfering with such young love. Here take this to her, maybe she will tell you herself." Dumbledore handed Harry a wildly colored rose from out of a slate colored vase.

Harry took the rose as a departing gift and made his way straight to the common room. Two perfect dents were left in the large couch across from the fireplace, so Harry knew it hadn't been long that the girls had departed. Ron was sitting at the far table studying what looked like a book about Quidditch, and took nearly a whole minute before he realized Harry was there.

"Ron…" Harry called across the room.

"Oh Harry, sorry. I just got done unpacking, came down here and those two were sleeping, looks like they straight up passed out on the couch last night. I didn't want to go get smothered by Lavender, or disturb those two sleeping, so I just stayed in this dark corner." Ron whispered.

"Ah." Harry added as he pulled up a chair.

Ron clearly noticed the flamboyant rose in between Harry's fingers.

"They went up a few minutes ago to shower. You don't suppose they shower together, do you?"

"Ron!" Harry spat at him.

"What? Don't act like you don't think about that kind of stuff. Those two are always together; they're both attractive. It's more of a compliment than a… pervy thing."

"I don't think of Hermione like that ever. " Harry was nearly sickened, "She's like my sister, Ron."

"Oh, you don't? I have." Ron trailed off.

Harry couldn't keep it straight in his head the many of times he thought of Lia explicitly; especially thinking about the night after the first Quidditch match, watching her head throw back while he was in between her legs.

"Don't be such a prude, Harry. "

"Me? I'm not! All I am saying is that I don't think of Hermione like that…. that's all."

"I swear one time I saw them kiss. "

"Who?" The boys heard a distant voice coming from down the stairs.

Lia was nearly at the bottom of the stairs, scrunching her wet hair with a towel.

"No one." Ron quickly blurted out.

"If you're talking about Hermione and I, you definitely did not see us kiss. No one did." She casually admitted as she joined them at the table.

The two sat speechless, eyes wide as saucers and mouths open askew.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that you and Hermione have kissed?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, before we started dating." Lia nonchalantly added.

Ron leaned in, nearly licking his lips waiting for Lia to go on. She clearly caught on to Ron's weird obsession over the two of them and decided to play into it.

"That night after Hogsmeade. After Harry and I said goodnight I retreated back to the dorm, and Hermione had somehow gotten all of her clothes off and was lying in my bed. Now, the only unusual part was that she was naked because Hermione and I often cuddle throughout the night when it gets cold in our portion of the dorms. I didn't think twice about crawling into bed next to her."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, Ron's heart raced with excitement while Harry's swelled with jealousy.

"She dug her head into my chest and started giggling. The butterbeer was just about wearing off at the point. Hermione's soft skin rubbed against my body, as she pulled herself closer. She leaned her head back softly, so close that her faint freckles on her cheeks were visible even in the dim lighting."

"She said 'Lia, I've never kissed a girl before, but you're so beautiful, and I think about what it would be like to kiss you'"

Ron was nearly off the edge of his seat and his mouth could've touched the ground from it being open so wide.

"I said 'Hermione, we are such good friends, if you want to see what it's like to kiss me then do it. She exhaled on my lips, and then they sweetly touched mine. It was gentle, and kind, but then she must've liked it because I felt her wet tongue inside my mouth, and her hand trailing down my stomach…"

"Gotta go, see you later, Harry." Ron nearly yelled as he ran off.

Lia chuckled to herself and continued drying her hair, clearly noticing the staleness on Harry's face.

"That's the first time I heard that story." Harry said shortly.

"I may have over exaggerated a few things. But I heard the whole conversation between you two. If Ron wants to think perverted thoughts about Hermione and I then I have every right to mess with him for it. "

"So, none of it was true…" Harry asked.

"Well, some of it was. The romanticism wasn't quite there. It was more like I walked into the dorm, started undressing for my pajamas and Hermione kind of drunkenly attacked me."

"Did she…?"

"Harry, why do you want to know? It was before we started dating and Hermione was stupidly tipsy."

"I dunno. I guess I want to know if my best friend fucked you before I did."

"No Harry, Jesus. That story was just made-"

"You two! On New Years! I bet the lot of you got drunk and kissed all night."

"Harry, I am so offended that you think I would ever cheat on you. Hermione is my best friend. I love her like a sister. "

"You love her like something."

"What! What do you want? Do you want to know that Hermione and I drunkenly made out and then she made me cum like you did? The answer is no."

"Before Hermione and I established this amazing friendship, we kissed. Okay? Are you happy? Yes, we kissed one time."

"Did you like it?"

"Of course I liked it, Harry. Hermione is a damn good kisser. But I never have thought of her in that way. It literally was a 'caught up in the moment' thing. Once she sobered up completely she felt horrible, had no idea you had kissed me only a few minutes earlier and nearly cried herself to sleep after a long shower."

"Lovely."

"Harry, you're being absolutely ridiculous."

"You tell this elaborate story about how you two are making out naked in your bed and Hermione is about to shove her hand down your pants. It doesn't make me happy."

"I'm sorry, Harry. It was wrong of me and I shouldn't have done it. But I promise you that Hermione's hands have never been down my pants, her lips have only touched my mouth. That's all it will ever be. "

"I just never thought my competition would be Hermione."

"Hermione is my absolute best friend in the world, Harry. You know how special she is to me, and to you. "

"I know, I should've caught on by the way you were scrunching your eyebrows that you were telling a long tale. I've kissed girls before and I shouldn't be upset that you have as well." Harry handed her Dumbledore's strange rose.

"Now, I hear around that you have some news to tell me?" Harry asked, scooting closer to her.

"Yeah, I do. "

"Get it out then!" Harry urged.

"I was speaking with Headmaster Fink, and he knows the talents I have and has seen me flourish here at Hogwarts more than I think I ever could at Eaglecrest… and well, Dumbledore, Snape and Fink said that if I want to finish out my 7th year here at Hogwarts next year, that would be fine. The only contingency is that I would have to substitute for Snape or McGonagall if for any reason they were needed elsewhere in the castle."

"So you would be teaching here?"

"Not fully by myself, but if either teachers wanted the day off the tend to House matters I would to be filling in for them."

"What did you say?"

"What do you think I said, Harry? Of course I agreed."

"Dumbledore said there are plenty of extra living spaces at Hogwarts or Fink said it would be no issue to set me up a flat that Eaglecrest would pay for as some sort of exchange program for enrichment of my education."

"So it's set, you're staying here."

"Yeah, I guess that's the case."

"That's fantastic!" Harry hugged her.

"I can't believe that Snape agreed to have me sub for him… strange enough he suggested the idea."

Harry was bouncing with so many springs of excitement any little bit of jealousy had easily been flushed away and quickly forgotten.

"I can't believe that this is where my life is going. I always wanted to teach, I never knew I would be getting a jumpstart already."

She paused and bit her lip.

"Professor Sprout is thinking about traveling to the Caribbean to study tropic plants and how they can influence the wizarding world. The spot will be opening up by the time I graduate."

"Lia, you are brilliant. Seriously, utterly just magnificent."

Lia scooted her chair as close to Harry as space would allow.

"Harry, I know it's not going to be a white picket fence life from here. I know that we aren't going to go through year seven, and I'll happily become a professor, pop out a few kids and you'll go off to your 9-5 Ministry job. A war is coming…. Hell, it's already here. I know what you have to do. But after all of that is done, and Voldemort is dead, we will get there, and finally have a home. Until then, let just pretend that we are already there, okay?"

Harry couldn't reply; he had been so wrapped up in new love and what seemed to be a smooth first half of the year he had completely let the constant dread of knowing that there was a war brewing violently underneath his nose. The thought made him physically ill that behind the movie screen he had been watching was a fire blazing ready to burn the entire damn place to the ground. He was the accelerant to burst everything into flames, literally the center of the universe to the wizarding war.

* * *

The busy school week had started again and Harry found his eyes mainly glued to the ground, staring at the path to his next class. Snape avoided Harry more now than ever, which Harry surmised to the fact that Snape actually did something that would make Harry smile and Snape couldn't stomach to see that. Harry's history course, Eastern Wizarding Concept, was putting him so far in to a slumber; it took a quick jab from Neville to keep him from snoring out loud. To keep his eyes at the very least open, he pulled out his Marauder's Map and stuffed it in the front of his notebook. Harry scanned the pages, Hermione was easy to spot, sitting on the edge of the courtyard alone, most likely reading. Ron was in the Gryffindor tower; Harry could only imagine what he was doing there at noon. It took a finer skill to find Lia, for Harry looked in all of the obvious places and couldn't a tiny banner with her name on it. Finally, Harry found her pair of feet in no other than Professor Snape's office, which normally Harry wouldn't have thought twice about it. This time, her two feet were rather close to a pair of feet that made Harry's blood boil. Draco Malfoy's feet were sitting parallel to Lia's, so close that nearly their toes were touching. Harry began to fidget in his seat, his pencil almost snapped in half from the tension in his fists. Lia never tutored Draco on Tuesday afternoons, Lia was supposed to be with Fink, she always met with Fink on Tuesdays.

The lecture couldn't end any more quickly than it did, and Harry nearly knocked Neville over as he dashed for the door. Harry didn't have a amiable feeling about what his saw on his map, and having mixed emotions from feeling uncomfortable and dismayed. Not even two steps out of the classroom and Hermione stopped Harry; her cheeks and nose were red, and her eyes seemed to be puffy.

"Harry.." She stood timidly off to the side.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Harry attempted to be as sympathetic as he could while trying to rush to Snape's office.

"Do you mind if I walk with you?" She asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

"I would be delighted." Harry urged for the two of the start walking.

"Harry, I am sorry. I am so sorry. Lia told me that she told you what happened that night."

"It's fine-"

"No Harry, don't just say its fine, because it's not. I should have told you. It was my responsibility to tell you and I didn't. I just, Lia was new and exciting and I was a little drunk and…. It just happened. I just feel terrible about it."

"Hermione, it's okay. Clearly it was just novel idea at the time."

"You don't have to worry about anything, Harry. I wouldn't know what to do without her, but as a friend, and that's all."

"Hermione, I completely trust you. You don't have to explain yourself. Just next time don't be afraid to talk to me, you never have to be scared to talk to me. "

"Good. To be honest, Harry… if you want me to be honest… "

She hesitated.

"I don't know if you heard, but Ginny and Dean broke up… and well, I've been wanting to talk to you about this…."

She paused again.

"Hermione, do you want to go somewhere more private."

He gestured to an open classroom door to the right of them.

"Aren't you in a rush?"

"Yeah, but it can wait. I can tell you're upset, you've been crying." He said, gently pulling her into the classroom.

"Alright, we are alone. Out with it."

"Oh Harry. I've been having such a hard time lately. Lia is doing her best to try and help me through it, but between her tutoring and SI, we only get to see each other at night and-"

"Out with it Hermione!"

"Harry, I've been seeing Ginny."

Harry froze.

"You know how much I love Ron, Harry. I can't deny that. But that night I kissed Lia, I realized how much more I wanted to kiss girls. I left our dorm that night, and went to go to the showers; Ginny was in there. I was finally completely sobered up and started feeling horrible… Ginny helped me shower, and the next thing I knew Ginny was naked against me with my hand between her legs."

"Too much Hermione."

"Sorry details…."

"My brain just twisted so badly after I felt so rejected by Ron that I thought if I cant have him, why not have the next best thing. Ginny and I have been sleeping together, and that's why her and Dean broke up."

"Well, do you have feelings for Ginny?" Harry asked.

"I don't really know. I've always had feelings for her as a friend, but I just am so messed up over Ron… I don't think I like her like that. "

"Does she like you?"

"No not in a romantic matter. Dean just couldn't get the girl off for the life of him."

"Hermione… if you are happy doing what you're doing, then continue it. But I know that you doing this isn't going to make you any closer to who you really want to be with. But I get how lonely you are, and Ginny is a good person."

"It's satisfying for now. A warm body next to me at night is better than sleeping alone too."

"Wow, I feel like I can breathe again."

"Don't ever let your head get to this point, Hermione. You can talk to me about absolutely anything, okay? "

Harry helped her from the desk with a loving hug led the way out of the classroom.

"I just didn't know all of you were so gay." Harry chuckled on the way out.

"You and me both, Harry. " Hermione laughed as she parted ways with Harry.

The tension in him loosened up slightly, but Harry knew that he had to rush to make it Snape's office as quickly as possible. Harry couldn't stop thinking about Hermione and Ginny in the shower, and wondering if his own girlfriend had any encounters with woman past.

Next thing Harry knew he was standing in front of the same rustic wooden door leading into Snape's office. It was slightly cracked, but Harry heard no noise or movement. His fingertips pushed on it lightly and just revealed Lia with her head pointed down her hands moving quickly over a pile of papers.

"Harry!" She nearly yelled, with a smile as wide as the moon on her face.

"Lia… you're alone?"

"Now I am- "

"Don't you usually have tea with Fink on Tuesdays?"

"Yeah, but today Dumbledore and Fink left yesterday and they'll be out of the castle for about a week, so I've been using the free time to catch up on grading for Snape. I swear this man gives more pop quizzes than he even knows how to come up with."

"Was he here earlier?"

"No, but he gave me the charm to open up his door whenever he isn't around. Draco was in here earlier… "

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Lia urged.

"I am just curious. Why was Draco here?"

"I was letting him try and transfigure my hair into snakes. He got them into worms. That boy is never going to pass that class."

"If you're teaching him, there's no way he wont." Harry said, shutting the door behind him.

"Stop trying to flatter me." She said to him, not looking up from her papers.

"Where is Snape now?"

"Snape had to join Dumbledore for the evening to wherever him and Fink are going. Professor McGonagall is going to help me with the evening lesson tonight. Hopefully I wont botch it. " Lia laughed, running her wand over papers making large red marks.

Harry inched closer, his eyes widening by the amount of red marks all over the quizzes.

"Rough quiz, yeah?"

"Fourth years. All about curses. I would think that by my fourth year I would know what The Killing Curse is."

"Ouch."

"I don't blame them. In class, Snape can be intimidating. The man is brilliant, and behind the scenes he is just extraordinary. Quite chatty."

"Snape? Chatty?"

"You don't think so?" Lia asked.

"I cant get more out of Snape than 'Going somewhere, Potter?' or 'Ten points from Gryffindor Potter, for you being an arrogant little brat." Harry impersonated Snape.

"I could see it. But I've done nothing but pick his brain. " She admitted, not looking up from her grading.

Harry inched in front of her, sliding her papers off to the side and pulling her wand from her tense fingers.

"Lia, I haven't seen you all day, and now I apparently wont see you until after your DADA lesson tonight. Why don't you put the papers aside and spend some time with me. "

She stood from Snape's rickety chair and joined Harry at eye level, leaving her papers in a mess on his desk.

"I guess I can take a break." She lightly chuckled, now taking a seat atop Snape's desk.

"Snape would murder me if he knew _you_ were in his office." She laughed again.

"I'm sure he would." Harry said, with his stomach now touching her knees.

"Would you mind having a late dinner with me tonight? After the evening lesson I could head straight to the Great Hall, maybe about 7ish? Is that okay?"

"I don't know, Lia. I am kind of hungry now." Harry pulled his lips into Lia's neck and began to suck on the soft skin.

"Harry, you are crazy." She whispered.

"It's the only time we've had alone. No one knows the charm to open Snape's door, do they?"

"Me and Dumbledore." She bit her lip and began unbuttoning her shirt.

Harry very quickly joined in suit with a jolt of excitement running through his veins. This could only have been in his wildest dreams of getting back at Snape, because Harry knew if Snape even as such found a tiny black hair of Harry's in his office he would be livid. The two shoved the papers off of the desk, and Harry gently lowered Lia's back flat against the surface. Her uniform skirt easily slid down off her ankles, and Harry couldn't wait to remove her teal lace underwear. The thought of him able to pleasure her again in such an intimate way almost made him wild and moments after, his lips were pressed against her bare hip skin. The same taste he seemed to be crazy about had rubbed against his tongue and Lia was attempting to muffle her moans.

It didn't take long for Harry to accomplish his goal, and within minutes he was fully naked, thoroughly enjoying the product of his pleasure as the two began enjoying each other. The desk shook so hard that Harry was afraid the legs were going to snap off, so he decided to take the next position in Snape's chair. Lia followed, and didn't mind to change of pace where she was able to control the amount of pleasure happening. Footsteps were clearly being heard from underneath the cracks of the door and the two realized that passing period had just began, which meant Lia's lesson had less than 20 minutes before it was going to begin. Harry tossed her off of him, and bent her back over Snape's desk, where he was able to climax, along with Lia for a second time.

The two dressed and Harry helped Lia fix herself up before they opened up the office door. Harry looked no more unkempt than usual, so it didn't take long for them to gather their composure. With a quick kiss, the two completely separated, Harry exiting first, then Lia gathering her papers and leaving shortly after.

Harry was able to survive through his afternoon lectures only to find Ron back in the tower, gazing off into the open frozen window looking out onto the quidditch field. Starry eyed, Ron barely even acknowledged Harry's entrance and hummed a singsong tune quietly atop his bed.

"Have a good day, Ron?" Harry asked.

"Perfect. Utterly Perfect." He said through his smiling teeth.

"You alright?"

"I am the best I've ever been, Harry. She's breathtaking. Completely wonderful."

"Had a change of heart for Lavender, have we?"

"Lavender? Heaven's sake no. Romilda. Perfect… beautiful…. Romilda."

"Romilda….." Harry noticed the boxes of opened chocolates that were addressed to him strewn about the floor.

"Ron you-"

"Are the luckiest man alive? I know." He nearly floated.

"Come on, Ron. Let's go."

"Are we going to see her?"

"Yes, of course. Just come with me."

Harry could tell that by the looks of things, Ron was hit with a nasty love potion meant for him. Lia and Hermione were both in evening engagements; so Harry knew the only person to help him would be Slughorn. Ron was hard to manage walking around on cloud nine, so Harry had to hold his forearm and drag him through the Hogwarts hallways.

The large wooden door was sealed up tight, and Harry had to bang on it as loud as he could with a closed fist. Slughorn peered through a peak hole that slid out from the middle of the wood. At first his reaction was to send Harry right away from Harry's persistence lately of trying to pry classified information out of him. Luckily, he saw Ron in the background sighing at the sky and overly red in the face. The door made loud knocks and clicks as Slughorn inched open just enough so his tiny blue wrinkled eye peered out.

"Professor, Ron got into a gnarly batch of love potion and the girls are tied up, you're the only person I could think of that could be talented enough to fix this." Harry half smiled.

"Right you are Harry. Bring him in."

Ron moseyed in behind Harry, still smiling at the imaginary Romilda face suspended in front of him. Slughorn scurried off to his cabinet and started clinking glass sticks against beakers. It didn't take long until Ron was willingly sucking down a pastel purple concoction that brought his smile into a quick frump.

"Wow. What happened?" Ron asked as he plopped down on the floor.

"Romilda Vane happened." Harry laughed and joined him on a paisley colored sofa.

Slughorn joined Harry with a deep amber colored bottle and three glasses he held clinched in his fingers.

"Rosmerta's Mulled Mead, anyone?" Slughorn offered.

Ron snatched a glass so quickly that Slughorn had to almost break the top of the bottle off to pour for him. From the smell, Harry wasn't going to be sipping mulled mead anytime soon, but that didn't stop Ron from gulping his portion in seconds. It sat well and Ron had a content grin as his belly warmed from the mead. Soon that grin completely disappeared and Ron's face turned whiter than a piece of paper. His limbs went limp and his head lost weight as he fell back onto the floor. Every inch of his body began convulsing and white foam began bubbling underneath his lips. Slughorn dropped his glass, shattering it and unable to get his body in motion to sort through his supplies to help Ron. Harry jumped from his seat racking his brain of something to save his friend. It was clear to Harry that Ron had been poisoned, and he flashed through the images of his potions book of something to cure it. Ripping Slughorn's drawers apart, Harry saw it, the bezoar and immediately grabbed it and shoved it down his friend's throat. Ron's convulsions stopped and Slughorn was able to pull himself out of his shocked state to find Madame Pomfrey.


	11. Chapter 11

Harry waited all night with Ron in the hospital wing to make sure that there were no complications with his recovery. Madame Pomfrey commended Harry on his swift response, for if Harry hadn't thought so quickly on his toes, Ron may be dead. Hermione and Lia brought plates of breakfast as soon as the sun had risen, everyone eager for Ron to wake from his sleep. Lavender rushed in, out of breath, and shooting Hermione a glare that could kill. At his bedside, she brushed strands of orange hair from his face and whined things that were inaudible to Harry, Hermione and Lia. Hermione scoffed at Lavender, it was pathetic to her the way she coddled Ron. His eyes began to flutter and his fingers began to move, but the words muttered from his mouth surprised everyone.

"Her… Hermione….." He whimpered.

Lavender was appalled, throwing his hand to the side of the bed and tears running down her face. Hermione scooted Lavender over and took Ron's wiggling fingers in her hands as he whispered her name a few more times.

Hermione and Harry spent the rest of the afternoon with Ron, due to the fact that Madame Pomfrey sent him out of the hospital wing only a little after four. Hermione was able to put everything behind her, and asked Ginny to join her in a dinner with her brother. The three reconciled, and Hermione swore she would never let anything come in between her and Ron again. This is the same night that Hermione and Ginny ended everything they had going on between each other.

* * *

News of Dumbledore's return spread fast, and Harry knew that soon after Dumbledore be summoning for his presence to wonder what information Harry was able to get from Slughorn. Truth be told, Harry wasn't able to really get much from Slughorn, so he almost dreaded Dumbledore asking to speak with him. Harry couldn't say that he didn't try and research on the matter, but personal research on a nearly restricted topic was impossible.

Harry rested on his bed, books piled around in small stacks about dark curses and spells while Ron laid back munching on snacks that Hermione brought him from the Great Hall.

"You know Harry, if this topic was so top secret, why doesn't Dumbledore try himself to figure it out? A hundred year old wizard would have a better shot at figuring it out over a _6th year_." Ron said with his mouth half full.

The door flung open and Harry kicked a few books from his bed from shock.

"You owe me." Lia announced plopping next to Harry's castle of books.

"For what exactly?" Harry asked.

"Well one, you missed a quiz on nonverbal spells, and I was able to sway Snape from just failing you for the lesson and convinced him that Ron was still too weak to be on his own. Two, Dumbledore caught me going from the dungeons to here and asked me where you've been and how much progress you've made on Slughorn. Naturally, I lied and said that you're so close you can almost taste it, and I let him know all the "information you've come up with", which is actually my own personal research because I can see that clearly you still aren't close. Dumbledore is going to find you tomorrow, and I would hope by then you would be closer to finding out what Slughorn told Riddle."

"Perfect. You're perfect." Harry whimpered.

"No, not charming me today. Dumbledore seems really concerned; I think things are getting serious Harry. You have to get that information."

"I've got nothing more than what we learn in class, and a bit of snooping around the restricted section. Slughorn refuses to see me whatsoever. What do you have?"

"Well, being an SI, I do have more access to things, and Slughorn doesn't think I am trying to pry information from him….. He let me into his office to grab some extra supplies for a DADA lesson, and well… I may have been able to break into a locked cabinet drawer… I found this."

Lia pulled out a scrap of paper about the size of her palm with ripped edges and a few sentences of writing upon it.

"Slughorn would never let Dumbledore in his office for more than a few minutes, so he must've not been able to get ahold of this. The little bit that's here… well it's not much…but, it says something about being able to rip your soul into parts. That's about it. That there's a type of dark magic that allows you the partition your soul, Slughorn knows the rest and you have to find out, Harry."

"He dodges me every chance I get to speak to him. There is no spell that would make him squeal and unless you can break into Snape's vault and get me veritaserum, then I am out of ideas. "

Harry watched as the sunlight began to crest in the sky, shining directly into the golden sparkling locks coming from Lia's head. The idea popped into Harry's head, causing him to spring from the bed and ravage through his top dresser drawer.

"Felix." He muttered as his flimsy fingers unscrewed the silver cap.

The liquid had a strange texture as it slid down Harry's throat, almost like chilled flaky oil. Ron and Lia sat on the edge of the bed waiting for something to happen, soon after Harry's face curled into a wide smile.

"I'll see you guys later." Harry bounced from the bed and took his leave.

Blowing right past Lia, Harry had a strong urge to go to Hagrid's hut. Passing Hermione, she wasn't able to talk any sense into him; like his feet led his path and his brain ignored everything else. Ron and Lia watched Harry trounce through the courtyard straight out to the edges of the castle until his silhouette was too tiny to see in the horizon. Hermione had joined the two and read children's stories out loud to pass the time.

Lia had dozed off on Harry's bed and Hermione snuggled close against Ron's legs waiting for Harry's return. The sun had completely set by the time Harry finally made it back up into the castle tower. The slight creak of the door caused all three resting bodies to shoot up and nearly smother Harry in attention waiting to see if he was successful or not.

"Felix must've not worn off yet if I have such a pretty girl laying in my bed." Harry chuckled.

"Get of it, Harry." Ron demanded, leaning on the very edge of the bed.

"Alright, alright…." Harry said, twiddling a tiny vial in his hand filled with a silvery liquid.

"You did it, Harry!" Hermione cried flinging her arms around his neck.

"Hagrid and Slughorn had a bit too much mead. Slughorn was vulnerable and a bit drunk; pulled the memory right out of his head. After bragging about my mother of course, which was a nice trade off."

Harry set the vial safely in a holder on top of the chestnut mantle and joined his girlfriend nuzzled in his giant fluffy comforter.

"Since you brought such great news, I should probably let out mine too." Lia propped up against Harry's headboard.

"Draco stopped coming to tutoring."

"That's a relief.-"

"Harry!" Hermione spat.

"Anyway…. I've been trying to catch him around seeing as that McGonagall's having a giant exam on liquid transfiguration next week. He's been almost avoiding me. The few times he has stopped to speak with me he's almost been frantic."

She paused.

"Obviously I've been listening to everything the Order has been saying, and what you three have been saying… so I started to follow him in my free period."

"He will always be just in eyesight, then I will physically see him enter a door, but when I try to see where it leads, it ends up being an empty room, or a nice quiet study with a fire roaring, but Draco not in sight."

"The Room of Requirement."

"The room of what?" Lia asked.

"The Room of Requirement is a room that only appears for one when it's needed but can be undetectable by others. He's up to something." Hermione explained.

"I knew towards the end of our lessons he became more distracted. I did my best to keep him focused, but nothing could keep that boy's head on track."

The room went awkwardly silent, and Felix was out of Harry's reach to try and save the situation.

"Come on, Hermione. The boys need rest, they have a game tomorrow."

The ladies left the room and short after Harry and Ron left no extra time to stay up and chat about what had happened that day.

* * *

The evening Quidditch game caused a rowdy buzz in the halls, a Ravenclaw and Gryffindor match was scheduled for after suppertime. This gave Dumbledore just enough time to summon Harry into his office to review the memory that Harry was able to receive. Ron and Hermione met Lia down at the Quidditch field so Ron could do a bit of practicing. Lucky enough for Ron, Lia was a seeker and knew a bit about keeping to help him brush off the rust from the holiday season. Lia knew that by lunchtime Harry would be done with Dumbledore so she kept Ron's refresh short and to the point. Ron showed much improvement from him last game, and even though still recovering from his poisoning, he showed a promising demeanor.

Lia flashed around the field a few times on Harry's broom, catching the snitch over and over, impressing Hermione and Ron without even trying.

"She's better than Harry." Ron whispered, putting his equipment away.

"I was thinking the same thing." Hermione chuckled back, helping Ron shut the Quiddich trunk.

Lia floated down and planted her two feet on the still rather yellow looking field. Her snitch folded its wings up into a tight ball, where she put it back into her pocket and ran toward Ron and Hermione.

"Harry should be back, yeah?" Lia walked off in front of them.

After placing Harry's boom back into his dented locker, the three made their way back up to the castle just in time for a late lunch. Ron snatched up a table where there was still a fresh batch of fish and chips and the end while Lia and Hermione grabbed drinks for the four of them. Hermione was especially impatient waiting for Harry to get back making that painfully clear by the way she tapped her foot against the solid marble flooring.

The Great Hall had only two other students gathering their late lunches along with the three waiting. It wasn't long until Harry strode in, with the same clunky sideways walk, fists clenched to his sides. Hermione waved manically, feeling a bit silly after she realized that there was no possible way Harry would not have been able to find them. Harry sat, looking rather shaken, without saying word.

"I saved you some fish, Harry." Ron gestured.

"I'm not really hungry right now, Ron." Harry politely declined.

"Harry…." Hermione empathized.

"Horcruxes."

The table went cold, they hadn't ever heard that word before, but it sent chills down their spines.

"He's got horcruxes."

Everyone anticipated Harry's explanation, but it clearly wasn't easy for him.

"Voldemort used the darkest types of magic to create Horcruxes. You keep a part of your soul in an artifact, so essentially as long as the artifact stays intact, you are immortal."

"How does one keep a part of their soul inside of something?" Ron asked with a mouthful of bread.

"By doing something horrible… like murder. It splits the soul, and a piece of it latches on to a nearby object."

"That ring that Dumbledore keeps in his desk, that's one isn't it?" Lia asked.

"Yeah, Tom Riddle's diary, the ring, Salazaar's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, something of Rowena Ravenclaw's and a few more things that Dumbledore is still working on."

"So, once the Horcruxes are destroyed-"

"He can be killed." Harry added.

Only sounds of cups against tables could be heard in the Great Hall. Harry took leave again, Ron joining him soon after to get ready for the Quidditch game. Lia and Hermione knew they were going to have to leave early from the castle to get a decent seat at the game, but Lia couldn't leave in good conscious without even wishing Harry good luck. After bundling up, and painting their faces, the girls crossed the common room and Hermione and Ginny waited at the top of the stairs while Lia approached the wooden door. Ron was just exiting the dorm leaving the door cracked just enough for a beam of dim light to escape.

"He hasn't said a word. He's geared up, but hasn't spoken." Ron whispered, then disappeared down the hallway.

Lia went to push the door open, but something stopped her. Pressing her lips against the corner of the open door, Lia spoke softly into the open crease.

"Harry… I know this is a lot for you right now, but don't shut down. There is hope. There is always hope, don't forget that."

Not a mutter was returned before Lia took her leave and joined her group. The stands were roaring before the players took flight, and Gryffindor was exceptionally excited after hearing about Lia training with Ron and her natural abilities as a player. Luna joined the girls still wearing her lion hat, even though Gryffindor was playing against her own house. The players took stance on the field and the screams were deafening. Harry entered with his head toward the ground completely zoning out the hundreds of students screaming his name.

This game was the shortest game in Hogwarts history. Harry caught the snitch before the first point was even scored, and the player's brooms barely left the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

Days passed before Harry even was feeling comfortable enough to be around his friends. Harry had been absent from the site of almost any student as he found refuge in a dusty old abandoned tower shoved deep past the depths of where anyone would want to explore. The entire weekend he spent up there kicking dust trying to organize his brain of the rushing gateway of new information he was meant to process. There was a building anger inside of him, the more knowledge he gathered, and the more Dumbledore pushed him caused it to boil. Dumbledore didn't care that Harry had a darkness creeping throughout him, one so strong that it had been as if he had been bunking with a dementor in that stale tower. Those few evenings were the last nights that Harry was able to keep his innocence intact, the black sky showing through the broken boards in the ceiling had stolen it each night before Harry closed his eyes to sleep.

Harry felt almost insane for the few days he spent alone, looking over every detail about horcruxes and obsessively watching for Malfoy on the Marauder's Map. Sunday's sunset finally convinced Harry that it was time for him to be back with people who cared about him and to pull himself out of the dark hole that he was beginning to lose himself in.

Harry had less than a knapsack to pack up before he left for the common room. A hot shower and his own bed were calling to him; not to mention Lia's scent, a mix of perfume and whatever plant she had been working on that day, hadn't left his mind. The common room was in sight and Harry could almost feel the hot water on his back until he saw Draco. The common room painting was flung open and Malfoy in a panic, running in a manic state.

"Draco!" A voice could be heard, yelling his name faintly from inside the common room.

Lia curled her fingers from around the painting and called his name again. Harry felt a boiling rage inside of him.

_How dare Draco be in there? How dare he be with Lia?_

Harry dropped his knapsack and charged off in Draco's direction.

"Harry?" Lia ran out from the common room.

"Stay back!" Harry boomed as he sprinted past her.

Draco disappeared behind one of the bathroom doors where Harry entered silently a few minutes after. The water was running and Harry could barely hear Draco sobbing over the trickling noise. Draco's face stared back at Harry through the fogged mirror, his tie undone and face red with tears. A red flash zoomed past Harry's head, barely missing the tip of his ear. Harry shot back, Draco dodged, causing the porcelain sink to explode. The two boys dueled and completely destroyed the bathroom, but Harry knew that it had to come to end. Draco's spells were countering Harry's too quickly, giving Harry no headway so he knew that he had to think on his toes. His brain pulled word that Harry hadn't ever used before, without a skip of a beat it came out.

"_Sectum Sempra_!" Harry yelled from behind what was left of a stall.

It was a direct hit, straight to Draco's chest and caused him to immediately fall to the ground. Blood rushed out from Draco, causing an instant pool of red to begin soaking everything. Snape rushed in, and Harry snapped back into focus as he heard Lia screaming from behind him. Her cold hands pulled him from the bloody floor and she dragged him from the bathroom as Snape knelt down to aid Draco. Harry couldn't remember much after that, just Lia getting him into the shower to wash Draco's blood from his body.

The next morning Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lia did not go to their daily classes. Harry woke from his bed and Ron's was already tidy and made while the sun reminded him that is was early afternoon. There were tiny cuts all over his body; Harry tried to cover them with a large robe before he made his way down to the common room.

The fire crackling was the only noise that Harry could hear as he descended down the large staircase to unite with his friends. There was a tiny tray with food that had barely been touched on the table in between them. As Harry approached, he saw that Lia's face was swollen and she could barely look at him.

"Harry!" Hermione leapt from the couch and threw her arms around him.

"Well, you're a bit roughed up, yeah?" Ron commented as Harry sat across him.

"Yeah, a bit. I'll be fine. How's Draco?"

Hermione and Ron both turned their heads to avoid the subject.

"Snape patched him up nicely. He will be out of the hospital wing by tonight." Lia answered after clearing her throat.

"Lia I-"

"Stop. You stop it Harry James Potter. Sorry will never cut it for what you did last night."

"Are you really upset that I hurt Draco? He attacked me first." Harry got defensive.

"Harry you're so THICK sometimes. Of course I am absolutely livid that you flew off the handle and hunted Draco down. But you could have seriously been hurt last night, Harry. You can't even imagine what state Draco was in. He could have killed you and not even batted an eye." Lia began crying again.

"It's pretty curious how I leave for a few days and Draco Malfoy ends up in the common room with my girlfriend."

"Harry, you needed space. I gave it to you. We all gave it to you. Draco broke in here last night to find me. He was hyperventilating, continuously saying how he 'couldn't do this anymore'. He was throwing up right before he ran out. "

She took a minute to stop crying, gather herself and turn to look Harry right in the eyes.

"Draco is my friend, Harry. You are my _everything_. Both of you could've been so mangled that would've been burying you instead of screaming at you."

Lia took a few more moments to erase the mental imagine of Harry's cold lifeless body entangled with a corpse of Draco Malfoy in that flooded boys bathroom.

"After I saw you the way I did last night, I knew it was bad. I ran straight to Snape's office knowing that if you two continued to duel, one or both of you were going to end up using one of the unforgivable curses."

"So Snape knows everything that happened?" Harry questioned, still having a hard time remembering every detail of the night prior; including which professor carried Draco out of that bathroom.

"After I was done cleaning you up, I went back to Snape's, spending quite a deal of time there. Somehow convinced him that it was unfair to expel you because Draco cast the first curse. Shockingly, he was more than willing to let you off with enough detentions to make sure you missed the last Gryffindor Quidditch game. "

Harry's knuckles were clenched white on a thick throw blanket that hung from the side of the stiff couch.

"I don't even know what to say. I lost it."

"Get your head on, Harry Potter. Get your head on before you don't have one anymore." Lia ended the conversation and headed back to her dorm. Hermione lifted herself from the large sofa and ran up the stairs after her.

"Girls." Ron shook his head toward their direction.

* * *

Harry packed up his wand, notepad and pens while the other Gryffindor's suited up for the last Quidditch game of the year. The girls needed a bit of convincing to go down to the field, knowing how upset Harry was about not leading the team to victory. But Harry assured them it was his own doing for not being able to join his team, and that Ron needed them there cheering him on.

The window was cracked in the hall, and Harry could hear the roaring screams traveling through the slit of fresh air. His notes were scribbled so hard against the pages of paper that some of it began to rip. The lights of the candles began to cause clouds of orange against the hall walls as the sun began to set. The cheering did not level out with the evening light, and it was clear that the match was extremely intense. A cold hand ran against Harry's back and startled him, due to the fact he was the only student body in the entire school.

"Gryffindor is winning. Remind you of something." Lia brushed her lips against Harry's neck.

"Lia.." Harry reached behind and grabbed a handful of her blonde hair.

"You didn't miss much, Harry. Let's go, okay?"

Lia snatched up Harry's things and pulled him by the waist all the way up to Common room, which was slowly beginning to crawl with red-faced wild Gryffindor's. A crowd of boys carried Ginny upon their shoulders, and an enthusiastic rush was chanting behind them. The music started shortly after, along with streamers and ribbons flying out of wands. Hermione and Ron were among the last Gryffindors to enter the common room, carrying two cases full of pumpkin juice.

"Congrats Ron." Harry hugged his best friend.

"I'm glad it's over." Ron sighed, while cracking open a pumpkin juice.

The common room exploded with energy, with fizzy drinks flying through the air, music blasting so loud it was nearly deafening. Ginny ran up to Hermione and Lia and the three embraced in a hug that turned in to sort of a hop.

"Ginny, great job out there!" Hermione screamed over the music.

"I couldn't have done any of it without Harry's guidance all year!" She screamed.

Her long intricate wand extended and pointed straight at the radio blasting the energetic music. The commotion stopped with the burst of light that came from Ginny's wand, and all attention sucked to her as she stood on top of the large table in the center of the room.

"You Gryffindor's fought like warriors in today's game!"

A loud cheer followed.

"We ended the season strong, and I am proud to be on your team, and be a friend. But we owe this honor to Harry! Our brave captain who has never failed us! Cheers for Harry!"

"FOR HARRY!" The entire room bellowed at the top of their lungs.

The music commenced, and Ginny gripped at Hermione and Lia's hands to join her on the dance floor. Lia could see in Harry's eyes that he was exhausted, and not ready to endure an entire night of celebrating.

"You two enjoy. I am going to call it a night."

The two disappeared into the crowd, and Harry and Lia snaked their way through the mass, getting stopped by just about every student for a congratulatory hug, hive five or quick dance. Finally, Harry's unkempt bed was in sight, and the two undressed into their undergarments and dove right into the puffy comforter. A soft acoustic music played from Harry's wand on the windowsill, and he wrapped his arm around her bare stomach. A quiet roar could still be barely heard in the background of Harry and Lia's peaceful embrace.

"Dumbledore talked to me this morning." Harry paused.

"If it wasn't bad enough to not be able to play our last game, he tells me that we need to go off campus tomorrow."

"Harry, don't worry about tomorrow. Focus on right now, focus on today. We might not have that tomorrow."

Harry rested his head into her bunched up blonde hair on the pillow, and realized she was right, this moment might not ever happen again.

The curtain was open just right that the starry sky was able to keep the room alight with the two stayed curled up in each other. Their tiny audible amount of music was just enough to drone out the chaos downstairs, and perfectly complimented their mood. The two placed tiny kissed all over each other's bodies; as if each kiss could subtract the amount of anxiety or pain the other was feeling. Harry's hand stayed wrapped in Lia's golden locks as the two began to doze off with an enormous rush of safety.


	13. Chapter 13

The strings on Harry's shoes burned the frail tips of his fingers as he tightened them while sitting in an untidy pile of sheets and blankets on his bed. Lia stood in the frame of the window with his large comforter wrapped around her body, allowing just slivers of orange morning sun sneak in behind her. Hermione was slowly blinking open her tired eyes from the comfort of Ron's bed while he was still deep in morning slumber.

"You should eat something, keep up your strength." Lia pleaded with Harry.

"I don't have an appetite. " Harry curtly answered.

"Harry, do you know what Dumbledore wants you to do today?" Hermione asked in a groggy voice.

"I think he's found one of the horcruxes. Slytherin's locket."

"Why does he need you to go along to get it?"

"I am not sure, it's probably too tough for one person to go….."

Harry stared off for a brief moment.

"Dumbledore and me out of the castle; I can't shake a bad feeling." Harry was able to somewhat mutter out while bent over.

Lia grazed by him, helping him zip up his navy jacket.

"I don't want you worrying about us while you're out there doing Godric knows what."

Harry barely digested what she said, and continued shoving his wand in his pocket along with a few potions that Lia had stored on his window ledge.

"You two promise me. Promise me that if Voldemort steps foot into this castle, you take Ron and you run. He will come straight for you three without me here."

"Harry, I am not afraid of him. I am not afraid of death. I will fight him."

"Don't be naïve, Lia. You haven't had to stare straight into the green light coming from the tip of his wand. You should be terrified. He knows that if any of you are harmed, I will surrender. Don't even try, just run." Harry demanded

"They've killed everyone I love. I can't lose you guys too."

Harry hesitantly ruffled through his dresser, realizing that time was not on his side and soon he was going to have to leave his loved ones. A tiny bottle that he was searching for finally brushed against his fingertips.

"Here, take this." He tossed the bottle to Hermione.

"There is enough for a tiny sip of Felix for each of you. If Death Eaters come, use it."

"Harry…"

Lia wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her comforter drop to the floor.

"Hurry back, okay." She stated in a shaky voice, letting a few tears fall from her blue eyes.

Harry reached his hand around her, pulling her forehead into his lips and letting his fingers run through her soft hair one more time before he left. The minute her golden hair dropped from his hands, Harry's stomach burned with an overwhelming pain. As his fingers curled around the door to close it, Hermione nodded at Harry with the unspoken seal of approval as well as Lia with her pouty lips and confident stare to send him off.

The door shut and Hermione immediately leapt from Ron's bed and grabbed Lia around the waist, knowing that even her powerful demeanor was crumbling watching Harry leave. A burst of blew light flew from Lia's wand and Apollo approached her with his head down, offering her as much comfort as a patronus could.

After only a few minutes of gathering themselves, the girls immediately woke Ron and informed him of Harry's warning. Quick showers and gearing up for whatever may come consumed all of their morning and partially into the afternoon. The halls buzzed as normal as the three made their way around the castle putting protection spells on any possible opportunity for a Death Eater to sneak into the castle. Ron and Hermione split from Lia to find all allies an inform them of what they predicted was going to come. Lia began to search the entire castle for Draco, knowing that he was the only person who knew the truth of what was truly going to happen by nightfall.

Hogwarts Castle was her home now, and her mind was more than programmed to find every single crevice that Draco could be hiding in. Lia started running up the Ravenclaw tower steps nearly crashing Luna over the black metal handrails.

Oh, Lia. Is it time now for running through the halls?" Luna calmly asked her.

"Luna, I need you to find every student you can in this building and gather them in the great hall. Can you do that?"

"Well, sure. That isn't a problem. Shall I run, or is walking just alright?"

"Skip, walk, run. Luna whatever you see fit."

Luna nodded and stepped down the marble spiral staircase without urgency or a purpose. The Ravenclaw region was peaceful; students continued to glide around, completely unalarmed by Lia charging through their halls. The smell of must became stronger as Lia began really trailing into untouched areas of the Ravenclaw tower. A rolling tingle tapped against her palms as she rounded a dusty corner with nothing more than a dead end cement wall in front of her.

Apollo burst from her wand, and hunched his back following the edges of the stonewalls. A part of cement where two walls connected is where the wolf passed straight through the stone and left Lia with her palms in the air. She shouted in her head for her blue-lighted companion to float back to her to reveal what he had found. Instead a black door unfurled from the rock, just enough room for one person to crank the knob and enter. A majestic room exposed itself behind the door, leading Lia through piles of antiques nearly the size of mountains. She called Draco's name off into the darkness, being led only by the light at the tip of her wand. No voice returned back her call, but a sound of whimpering gave her a better sense of direction.

"Draco?" Lia called off again.

A tiny bubble of light floated deeper into the mysterious room and Lia had no hesitation following it. As she approached the whimpering revealed to be heavy sobbing coming from Draco, who was holding his towhead down on his knees. Lia joined him down on the ground, in front of a large black chest with one of its painted oak doors slightly cracked open.

"Is it tonight?"

Draco couldn't contain his sobbing to answer her.

"Draco!" Lia screamed at him, firmly grasping his shoulders.

"Lia…. He's going to kill my family…. I cant do it." He pushed through his tears.

"Draco, who?" Lia insisted, pulling Draco in for an embrace.

"You have to get Ron and Hermione out of the castle. Harry can handle his own. You have to get out of here."

"Draco, why? Tell me!" She demanded.

"Lia, please. _Go_. You must _go_. "

"Is he coming Draco? Is Voldemort coming to the castle?"

"It's starting." Draco's blood shot and tear stained eyes met hers as a giant crash sent Lia to her feet.

There wasn't much light to see what was happening, but Lia wasn't sticking around to take her chances. Without hesitation, Lia began sprinting, watching green beams shoot past her.

"Don't hurt her!" Lia could hear Draco scream from behind her.

With a flick of her wand behind her head, she set an explosion off into the nearest giant pile of things to block her attackers way. The door was still cracked, which Lia tightly locked behind her, knowing she only had a few minutes before Death Eaters were going to be busting through it. The muscles in Lia's legs began to ache as she sprinted through the halls of the castle, informing any straggling students to gather in the Great Hall. The air in her lungs seemed to almost burn from not pausing for a second to find Ron and Hermione. The Great Hall was filled with confused students, waiting for an explanation of why they were all crammed with each other.

McGonagall locked eyes with Lia and stomped across the room to engage with her.

"What is the meaning of this Miss Bloom?"

"Professor, it's happening. Death Eaters are in the building. We need all staff and all 7th and 6th years to grab their wands and defend this castle. "

"You know this for a fact, Ophelia?"

Lia nodded, trying to catch her breath.

"I will have the staff convene out of here, but I do not want any students fighting."

"We have no choice. I'll find Hermione and Ron. The students from Eaglecrest will follow Fink with any orders, just find him and let him know!"

Screams could be heard off in the distance; time had run out, and Lia let her wand slip down in between her fingers.

_Where could they be? _

The only place Lia could think of going to next was Snape's office, her chances of finding Ron and Hermione there were slim to none, but Snape might have a word of insight.

"Professor Snape!" She screamed, seeing that his office door was also hanging wide open.

His office was nothing but term papers stale air, except for the ring that was usually on Dumbledore's right index finger, yet it was missing the stone that was typically set in the middle.

"Dumbledore was here, with Snape? When?"

Leaving the band behind, Lia exited to accompany more screams echoing down the halls right outside the door. Alecto Carrow was guarding that particular hallway, casting the crutiatus curse at any student not quick enough to evade him.

"Confringo!" Lia screamed down the hallway, blasting Alecto through a wall. No sooner did she see Hermione running with Remus Lupin past the blast.

"Nice shot, Lia!" Remus complimented her.

"The Order is here?" Lia asked.

"Luckily, Hermione is quick with passing word. We are guarding every exit, and Molly and Tonks are holding down the Great Hall."

"How many are here?" Remus asked, while keeping pace to make their way to the great hall.

"I would say at least a dozen. When they came piling out of the chest I didn't stop to count. They didn't hesitate trying to use the killing curse on me either."

Off in the distance the three could hear a wild cackling being rung about the empty halls of the castle. It was immediately apparent to Remus and Hermione on who the ear piercing noise was coming from. Bellatrix stood pigeon toed in front of the Great Hall doors, licking her chapped lips, with a clear colloportus spell keeping the door sealed shut.

"Well, look who we have here? A wolf, a mudblood, and well hello deary, I believe you're the one Draco is so fond of? Ophelia, the American witch."

Remus raised his wand, ready for action.

"While that looks increasingly entertaining, Remus. We only came here for Dumbledore."

"WHERE IS HE?!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Don't worry about it." Lia stepped in front of Remus and Hermione.

"Oh, he mentioned that you're Harry's little lover girl. The Dark Lord would love it if I kept you in chains for him." She chuckled again.

"I dare you to try." Lia challenged her.

Flashes came from Bellatrix's wand and Lia was barely able to dodge the lights flinging past her. A tiny slit from Lia's cheek let out a few droplets of bright scarlet blood onto the gray swirled rock floor. A quick wipe of the substance from her cheek and Lia was immediately back into defense mode waiting for Bella's next attack. Bellatrix became irritated and started irrationally shooting bursts of whatever spell she could think of straight toward Lia.

"Expelliarmus!" Lia screamed, sending Bellatrix's wand flying into the air.

In complete horror, Bellatrix disregarded her wand and charged toward Lia with her dagger.

"Stupefy!" Lia shot at her with a direct hit.

Bellatrix went flying back into the far wall, giving Hermione enough time to do un-do her locking curse on the Great Hall door. The entire school was chatting wildly, becoming more anxious with each sound they heard banging against the castle walls. From outside the window, Hermione could see that one of the Death Eater's had cast the dark mark, making a sure signal for Dumbledore to see.

"They should be back any minute." Hermione worried.

Ron came from the back of the crowd with his twin brothers, all three with smiles upon their faces.

"The back of the castle is cleared. It's quite eerie how quiet it is."

"Fink's back there now with a few Death Eaters locked up tight with an Incarcerous Spell." Ron added.

"The others are going to ambush Harry and Dumbledore when they get back. I have to get to Harry." Lia pleaded.

Within a flash, Lia was gone, leaving behind Ron, Hermione and the Order to keep the school protected. It was apparent that Lia had been able to apparate on school grounds, being a non-native Hogwarts student; the rules were much easier to bend. From outside Lia could see a mob of Death Eaters crawling to the top of the astronomy tower. Dumbledore's white beard was the most apparent feature, nearly dangling off the edges of the railing border.

Aparrating again, Lia found herself standing right before the final staircase leading to the top of the tower. Harry connected eyes with her, and the two slammed their bodies together with a powerful hug.

"Harry, Harry, you're okay." She kissed his neck.

"Lia-"

Harry was only able to slur before a burst came from Dumbledore's wand, rendering Harry completely unable to move.

"Lia, please go. I must hide Harry, but you're able to apparrate. Get out of here."

"I am not afraid of them Albus. I will fight with you."

Harry was screaming inside of his head for Lia to run, but instead she helped Dumbledore pull Harry aside and cover him with the invisibility cloak. Before covering his face, she gave him a kiss on the mouth.

"You're our only hope, Harry Potter. I love you."

She covered his face, but he was still able to see through the cloak, perfectly through a crack where almost the entire Astronomy deck was visible.


	14. Chapter 14

Lia stood defensively in front on Dumbledore, sensing that something had weakened him by his slight swaying in the mild night breeze. Lia kept on running through her mind where in the world her own headmaster could be, knowing that he would've been the next wizard besides Dumbledore to be able to defend the castle. Footsteps became rapid, and luckily each of them completely buzzed right past Harry. Only 6 of the Death Eaters made it to the top of the tower, two of them holding Draco by the shoulders and Snape bringing up the back.

"Lia?" Snape gasped in horror.

"Draco, I told you to get her out of the castle."

"I tried." Draco choked back another bought of tears.

"Luckily, I am my own person and nobody makes any decisions but me." Lia spat back at them.

Bellatrix's skin crawled with rage and disgust watching Lia's lips move.

"Severus, what is going on? Why did you bring them up here?"

"It's been quite obvious, Lia." Dumbledore interjected.

"Draco has been trying to kill me all year. Surely, not very effectively, and especially not directly. I allowed it to continue, knowing that Voldemort would've slain your entire family. But you knew that already, didn't you Lia?"

"I knew that Voldemort had threatened Malfoy, and I assumed it was to carry out the acts of murdering you."

Dumbledore humbly nodded at her.

"Draco, finish him!" Bellatrix screamed.

"Draco, it is never too late to become part of the good in this world. It is never too late to change one's destiny." Dumbledore persuaded.

"Draco, please. It doesn't have to be like this." Lia reached out to him with her free hand."

"I can't, Lia, I can't" Draco began to tear up again with his wand pointed at Dumbledore.

Harry could now almost wiggle his entire foot, and he was determined to fight alongside his girlfriend.

"Just kill him Draco!" Yaxley yelled in Draco's ear again.

Draco's wand quivered in the air since he was now dry heaving while attempting to stand.

"Severus… please." Dumbledore pleaded with his friend as he took lead in front of Draco.

Lia jumped in front of Dumbledore, completely blocking any curses that Snape might attempt to cast at his.

"Severus no! You're good! I know you are good! You can't do this." Lia screamed with tears running down her face.

A severe jolt sent Lia flying into a pile of empty crates, with her eyes only able to watch as the emerald light sprang from Snape's wand, connecting with Dumbledore's chest. Lia let out ear shattering shrieks as she watched Albus fall from the Astronomy tower in her pile of rubble on the solid ground below. Bellatrix began to jump for joy, with her attention set straight for Lia, distraught and sitting on her knees.

Bellatrix pounced on top of her, slamming her arms against the dusty floor leaving her unable to move.

"Bellatix no!" Draco yelled.

"Someone get Draco out of here please!" Bellatrix yelled.

Yaxley grabbed Draco by the collar and dragged him down the tower stairs, Draco screamed the entire way down for Lia's mercy. Lia's crying soon stopped, as she realized that this may be the last few moments in her life and she wasn't going to spend them showing that she had any weakness.

"Bella, this is a student, you must remember-"

"SHOVE IT SERVERUS!" Bellatrix boomed while running the tip of her wand against Lia's pale face.

"If she's not with us, she's against us, Severus!"

"Do it you coward. Go ahead, kill me." Lia urged Belltraix trying to wiggle her freehand to grab her wand.

Harry watched in complete horror. Dumbledore's curse was still entirely too strong for Harry to become free, even though Harry had watched his headmaster fall to his death.

"Bella, don't kill her, please." Severus begged.

"You risk this witch possibly going up against the dark lord? She already disarmed me once. She's a threat. Severus, who means more to you, her or the Dark Lord?"

Lia could see the tears in Snape's eyes; she could sense an unspoken message of shame. Snape dropped his head to left, unable to peer up to witness what Bellatrix had planned for Lia's demise.

"Just don't kill her, Bella." Snape whispered.

"Fine."

Bellatrix's wand crept up through Lia's blonde curls but Lia did not falter. Her blue eyes met Bellatrix's near black ones without a bit of wetness or fear.

"We're going to win. Harry will kill Voldemort."

Bellatrix cracked one more ugly smile … _Obliviate_.

A small string of white wisps came from Lia's temple, causing a draining feeling through Lia's entire body. The last thing Lia could see was the night that her and Harry danced together in circles of splendor of happiness until everything went black. Within seconds, Bellatrix and Snape apparrated with the rest of the Death Eaters, and near instantly Harry was able to feel his entire body. He skipped steps running up to his unconscious girlfriend. Over the railing he could see Dumbledore's lifeless body lying in the stone courtyard. Harry had no time to react to the murder of his Headmaster, only to hold Lia's golden curls in his hands trying to revive her. Hermione, Ron, Remus, the twins and Arthur made their way to the tower only seconds after Harry had held Lia's head in his lap.

"Is she?!" Hermione screamed in horror.

"No, she's not dead. Bellatrix cast a curse on her."

"We must get her to the hospital wing, immediately. Harry, come on." Remus lifted Harry from her body, while Fred and George collectively carried Lia away from him.

The trio slumped behind, leaving Lia to the hospital wing, and to go see the horror of their headmaster's dead body lying without light in his eyes. A large crowd had already gathered, most students and teachers alike were sobbing uncontrollably. Harry could hear laughing off in the distance, almost as if the entire world lost sound except for the chuckling in the forest. Harry split from the group and took after the sounds past Hagrid's hut, Hermione and Ron barely able to keep up.

The black robes of the Death Eaters were easy to spot against the raging fire the set upon Hagrid's house.

"Snape!" Harry screamed with tears streaming down his face. Red beams flew out Harry's wand, but Snape easily deflected them in Harry's emotional state.

"You were supposed to protect her, Snape! You were supposed to make sure nothing happened to her!"

Snape stood stoically, while the rest of the group mocked Harry's sobbing.

"You coward!"

Harry shot the only spell he knew that wasn't an unspeakable curse at Snape.

The DADA teacher was able to deflect again, and only slightly chuckle at Harry.

"How dare you use my own spell against me, Potter?" Retaliating with a stupefy spell.

Snape was now inches from Harry's face.

"Don't you dare preach to me, boy. She was the best part about you and you let the light leave her eyes. Stay away from us, Potter."

The professor slammed him against the ground and disappeared into the blackness of the forest.

Harry shot blindly into the tree line, hoping to hit any body to help soothe his frenzied satisfaction. The grass slid from underneath Harry's pants as his friends dragged him back to the castle.

A tribute of wands pointed toward the sky, clearing the Dark Mark from over the Astronomy tower. Dumbledore's gray face was laying face up, with his wrinkled eyes gently shut and a graceful closed mouth smile. Hermione could barely stand from the hysteria of the moment; Ron held her by the waist keeping her afloat. McGonagall cupped the trio with her long arm span and guided them away from the crime scene understanding that out of anyone, it affected them the most.

There was such a rage built up under Harry's skin, he wanted to call Voldemort out himself and fight him one on one. The entire journey back to the common room was a complete blur, and Harry couldn't recall anything until he was being roused the next morning.

"Where's Lia?" Harry asked hazed.

"In the hospital wing." Hermione was barely able to chirp out.

"Has she woken up?"

"Not that I know of." Hermione answered somberly.

"I have to go to her." Harry stood from the couch.

"Mate, that's probably not a good idea." Ron urged Harry to sit back down.

"You guys are acting weird."

"Harry, do you remember anything from last night?"

"I remember Snape killing Dumbledore. I remember Fred and George carrying Lia away. That's about it."

"Harry, Bellatrix cast a curse on her." Ron explained.

"She's not dead. I have to go to her."

"Harry, she doesn't know who you are! " Hermione yelled, trying to get through to Harry's thick skull.

Harry felt knives in his stomach.

"What do you mean?"

Hermione stepped closer to Harry.

"She doesn't remember any of us. Bellatrix used some sort of Obliviation curse on her."

Harry quickly changed his shirt, half ignoring what Hermione had said and sped off out of the common room, where Ron and Hermione followed. The hospital wing was quite jammed with students injured from the small battle that ensued. There was a blend of American students and Hogwarts students laying with parts of their bodies bandaged, some knocked out cold with their chest's barely rising. Luckily, Dumbledore was the only seriously casualty, and no students were killed, but some were very seriously injured.

Madame Pomfrey was tending to Lia in the far back corner, and a jolt of lightning burst through Harry's heart seeing her smile. Fink was standing with his back leaned against the far wall, still wearing his sleek black headmaster outfit. No tears left his eyes as he watched his brightest pupil sit cross legged in her hospital bed, but Harry could tell he was distraught by the forced closed mouth smile he presented to him.

Harry didn't stop to chat, but approached Lia's area calmly, walking in to a conversation that she was carrying on with the head nurse.

"I must've taken a pretty rough tumble out there. Next thing I knew I was looking up at my uncle at the top of the cliff right outside these walls. Luckily this school was out here. Was this a private boarding school again?"

"Yes dear. A private school."

"I can tell, everyone here is wearing uniforms."

"Has anyone found my uncle yet?" Lia asked.

"Yes dear, a ranger found him just a couple counties over. He should be here within the day to take you back to Colorado."

"That'll be nice. I think I am over backpacking through Europe. It's been nothing but trouble. First I lose my wallet, then I fall and hit my head, nearly forget who I am."

"I am sure that troubles will soon pass, dear. For now you should rest."

Madame Pomfrey took her leave, and Harry sunk into a chair only a few beds over from Lia's. All he wanted to do was hold her, to kiss her, to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be okay. When Madame left Lia's bed, she came straight for Harry and knelt beside him, cupping his hands inside hers.

"I've been at it all night, Harry. This curse is one that isn't budging. It's going to go with Lestrange to the grave, I'm afraid my boy. You three best not mention the past. This spellwork isn't anything I've ever seen before, but it's left her mind fragile. Anything that excites it too much or break the bridge holding it together might cause a total collapse. It could even kill her depending on what shuts down."

Harry began to sob while Ron and Hermione joined him, all sharing the loss, even though Lia was only sitting a few feet away from them.

"She was the best friend I ever had, Harry." Hermione cried into his shoulder.

After only about an hour, Ron and Hermione knew that Harry needed time to work through the chaos in his head. The two left Harry in the large chair, with his black glasses folded up on the arm and his chin resting on his clutched knuckles.


	15. Obliviate

Soon the hours passed, and Harry spent time sitting in the hospital wing, waiting for maybe the minute that Lia's brain would unscramble and remember him. But instead she spent time reading hospital books on the end table, and fiddling her fingers in her blanket. Harry's eyes were so red from sobbing he could barely stare straight into the sun behind her.

"Did you lose someone?"

"What?" Harry sat up from his confused state.

"The nurse, she was talking about some collapse in the school's astronomy tower last night. Did someone you know get hurt?"

"Yeah, I guess you can say that."

"You've been staring at that empty bed for at least two hours. So either you've lost someone, or you're crazy."

Harry felt himself gravitate toward her, sitting on the end of her bed with a clean smile and open heart.

"Your name is?"

"Harry. Harry Potter."

Lia didn't even flinch at the mention of his famous name, and that convinced Harry this was for real.

"Harry, that's a nice name. I'm Ophelia." She reached across the bed and shook his hand.

"You're cute, Harry. You might want to put some cucumbers on those eyes before they swell shut."

"Thanks." Harry chuckled.

Harry spent the next hour laughing and getting to know the new Lia all over again; even though the way she laughed and the way she played with her hair was exactly the same. Harry felt as if he was talking to a ghost; her blue eyes blinked the same way as before, but they stared emptily back at him. It was masochistic the way he held himself back from kissing her, but also couldn't lift himself from the bed to leave.

A tall weathered man appeared at the foot of Lia's bed wearing worn blue jeans and a thick flannel jacket.

"Uncle John!" She flew from her white comforter wrapping her arms around the man's neck.

"Lia, you're okay." The older gentleman said without much conviction.

"Yeah, I am perfectly fine! This place is amazing, isn't it?! I snuck out this morning and explored. Absolutely exquisite castle."

Harry silently shook his head, finding comfort in the fact that even new Lia couldn't hold herself back from her own curiosity.

"You think I could come back and visit? Of course not until I am 18 and saved up a bit."

"It would be lovely if you came back and visited." Harry smiled, with his insides nearly melting with dread.

Lia frantically sifted through a pile of papers and found a quill and ink and started scratching down a series of numbers.

"2371 85th Ave, Boulder, Colorado. That's my address. Will you write to me? I've always wanted an overseas pen pal, especially one that's so…. kind."

"Of course." Harry clutched onto the paper like his life depended on it.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Harry. I supposed it's my time to leave now."

"Yeah, looks like it." Harry choked on his words.

"Ophelia Bloom is the name. Don't forget it." She winked at him.

"Highly unlikely."

The lilac smell met Harry's nose for the last time while Ophelia slung her arms around his neck, gripped his back in the same fashion that Harry was so madly in love with.

"Thanks for keeping me company. Maybe we'll meet again, Harry." She smiled.

"Only if I'm lucky." Harry whispered as she picked up her bags, and exited Hogwarts for the last time.

Harry saved that tiny piece of paper forever, but never once did a letter make it to America.

* * *

The last days of Harry's sixth year were spent mostly in solitude, only really seeing Ron and Hermione occasionally. Hermione and Professor McGonagall spent most of their free time researching the new kind of spell casting that Bellatrix used on Lia. There wasn't much in the teacher's reserve of spell books, or even in the restricted section.

"Harry, her memory could eventually come back. Professor and I found that it's almost like locks on memories and if the witch or wizard is strong enough those locks can be broken. Those old memories can present themselves in dream, but only appear to be figments of imagination."

"Hermione, you know that Lia is strong enough to break those locks."

"I know she is, but this is all just theory, and it's extremely risky magic. Especially because there are triggers that can cause brain collapse mainly involving the memories that have been locked."

"That's exactly why I can't write to her or go see her. If her memory restores itself, she'll find me."

Hermione stayed silent and Harry could tell that she was holding back something she didn't want to bring up.

"What…"

"Harry…. I don't know if she would come back."

"Why not?!" Harry spat.

"I am not saying that she wouldn't ever come back. Lia is so intelligent that I think she would wait to come back until the war is over. She kept on calling herself your Achilles' Heel. She is your _only_ weakness besides us."

Harry had nothing to say back, because he knew it was the complete truth. Sure Harry would risk his life for his friends, but nothing would make him be more irrational than if Voldemort got ahold of Lia.

"Harry, if you need… Ginny and I will be out of the dorms all afternoon helping get Dumbledore's funeral together. If you want, we haven't touched anything in her room yet."

Harry nodded, holding back the feeling of tears again.

"Ron's going to be with us, so no one will be bothering you."

Hermione left Harry alone, where as he immediately took her offer to go and sort through Lia's things.

It was clear to Harry which bed was Lia's; up the posts were green vines of various plants that Lia had been growing all year. Her bed was untidy and a few outfits were in piles at the foot. A leather bound book was hanging out from the left corner where Harry couldn't help but recognize her scratchy handwriting.

_Day 1:_

_ Hogwarts must be the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my entire life. The kids here are so gifted and so kind, I feel so lucky. The chosen one accidentally entered my room today, and yet he isn't as arrogant as had played in my head. A wizard the same age as me that has more fame or glory than I could ever imagine, but shockingly humble. I want to hate him, but his smile makes that impossible. _

_ I could get used to staying in a school like this._

_ Day 64:_

_ It's almost holiday time and I can't even express how thankful I am for my new friends here. They've kindly asked me to join them and their families so I wasn't stuck at the castle alone. Never in my life have I had such true friends. _

_ I have a feeling Harry is going to blow me away at the Burrow with some beautiful gift. I love him. I bloody love that messy haired boy. _

_ Day 100_

_ You are my stars and my sky. My whole world; my universe. Don't you ever go away, my lightning bolt._

_ Day 132 _

_ Draco has been acting funny. It's going to happen soon. I wish I could change him, I wish I could tell him that there's a way out. But I can see it in the tremble in his voice and the fear in his eyes. Dumbledore knows. Severus knows and has to do what is required of him. It's happening._

_ Stay strong, my love Harry._

Harry's eyes had become so welled that he wasn't able to read any more passages from Lia's log book. He tucked it inside of his sweater and laid belly down on her soft comforter, digging his face into her pillow, which smelled just like her shampoo. Underneath the pillow was something thin, long and hard, and no sooner than touching it Harry could hear a low droning growl. Lifting his face, he was nearly blinded by the sight of Lia's patronus. The wolf began the whimper and rub his body against Harry's legs, which eerily the entity had a property of density to it.

"I miss her too, Apollo."

The hard object underneath Lia's pillow happened to be her wand, which deep black with etchings of vines and earthy tones to it. Harry was confused as to how the wand had gotten there, but quickly figured that Hermione or McGonagall has placed it somewhere safe after Lia had been admitted. Harry gathered the flutterby bush, her wand and leather book; the rest he left untouched for Hermione to sift through.

The idea of having Apollo out every now and then seemed to comfort Harry in his time of extreme darkness. The only upside to his "loss" of Lia was a temporary numbing for him to process the death of Dumbeldore. Harry knew that eventually his figurative Novocain was going to wear off and Harry would be lucky if he survived his own head. Every year it seem as if Harry's loss only exemplified, and Harry's brain went to a darker place than before, unlocking thoughts that Harry didn't know were possible. Even in the presence of a dementor, that feeling couldn't amount to the amount of sadness and desperation he felt on that day.

* * *

The following day Hogwarts' grounds became so saturated with witches and wizards that it was almost impossible just to take a stroll around the castle. It seemed as if an infinite amount of chairs were lined up causing the grounds to appear white instead of their natural green. Dumbledore's body was laid upon a marble slab near the edge of the forest, where Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny were among many of the students within the first couple of rows. Dumbledore's body almost looked fake, whether it be from the disbelief that he was gone or in that no one had ever been able to imagine that image of Albus. The ceremony was beautifully conducted by a shorter, fluffy haired wizard assumed to be an old friend of Dumbledore. Harry, Ron and Hermione held hands throughout the entire ceremony and weeping silently, which was especially difficult for Hermione. A collective energy gathered to create a resonating somberness that the castle couldn't shake for the rest of the year.

After the ceremony, Ron and Hermione lost sight of Harry and quickly managed to weave through the crowd to attempt to find him. Harry was elbow deep in his closet, stuffing his clothes into a bag while clutching onto a locket that Hagrid gave him from Dumbledore's pocket from the night he was murdered.

The trio was united, where unfortunately Harry was sitting with his back against the bed on the floor and all of his worldly belongings packed up on his four-posted bed.

"Harry..." Hermione trailed off.

"This can't be put off any longer, Hermione. They're taking everyone from me."

"Harry, do what you have to, but we are coming with you."

"You guys stay, finish your courses Let me-"

"We are coming with you." Hermione boomed, with tears welled in her eyes again.

Harry didn't dare challenge her again in fear of a spell she might cast on him.

"For Sirius, my parents, Dumbledore…. for _her_.

Harry stood to his feet, pulling in the energy from his best friends.

"This ends, once and for all."

The trio interlocked their arms, standing inside of the common room for the last time in a long while. They knew their lives were never going to be the same, but they knew they could face all the evils in the world and as long as they were together, they were home.

* * *

**The sequel is out! If you would like to find out what happens next in my series you can read Aparecium which is on my author page! **

**Thank you so much! **

**~ Solis**


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